Tula-Tu's still having a ball — but now it's twice as big

1-year-old Asian elephant Tula-Tu is getting bigger, and so are her enrichment items

Tula-Tu, the young Asian elephant at the Oregon Zoo, now tips the scales at over 1,300 pounds and care staff have given her a ball suitable for her size.

“Were big on enrichment here — literally,” said Steve Lefave, who oversees the zoo’s elephant care program.

The supersized ball — elephant-tough and 4 feet in diameter — is part of the Oregon Zoo’s renowned environmental enrichment efforts: providing stimulating and challenging environments, objects and activities to promote animal well-being.

Lefave says Tula-Tu, now nearly a year and a half old, has shown precocious dexterity and a playful personality right from the start.

Last July, her fancy footwork with a watermelon showed she was already a master of close control dribbling. In October, Tula-Tu was not quite old enough to participate in the zoo’s annual Squishing of the Squash — one of the pumpkins weighed more than she did! But care staff presented her with a smaller pumpkin, which she kicked around like a soccer ball before the main event — and in the process “won the internet.”

For her first birthday on Feb. 1, Tula was gifted a brand-new ball from the Portland Fire. She’s also had fun with a special hand-me-down from her soccer mom — a 36-inch-diameter ball that has been a favorite of Rose-Tu’s for 25 years.

“While 1,300 pounds might sound like a lot, it’s still small for an elephant,” Lefave said. “Her mom weighs over 7,500 pounds and her dad is over 10,000, so Tula still has a lot of growing to do.”

Much like the World Cup stars, the young elephant has delighted and inspired fans around the world, he says.

“Tula has been such an inspiration,” Lefave said. “From the very beginning, she’s been a symbol of hope and connection, for our community and beyond.”

All that attention spells good news for Tula-Tu’s wild counterparts, experts say. “The more exposure people have,” University of Michigan professor Stephanie Preston said in a Forbes article about the young elephant, “the more likely they are to consider it important to conserve the spaces where the species live.”

Highly endangered in their range countries, Asian elephants are threatened by habitat loss, conflict with humans and disease. It’s estimated that just 40,000 to 50,000 of them remain in fragmented populations from India to Borneo, and their home range overlaps with some of the most populous human areas on the planet — 20% of people worldwide live in or next to Asian elephant habitat.

The Oregon Zoo is recognized worldwide for its elephant care program, which has spanned more than 60 years. It has established a $1 million endowment fund supporting Asian elephants, including the Association of Zoos and Aquariums’ SAFE program to advance conservation across all 13 of the species’ range countries.

Beyond direct elephant care, the zoo collaborates with local partners in Borneo to create lasting conservation solutions, from replanting forests and establishing protected corridors to fostering peaceful coexistence between elephants and communities.