Summer intern profile: Lydia Henderson ’16

Think your summer vacation was exciting? Unless you stood face to face with an elephant on the African plains, Lydia Henderson ’16 probably has you beat.

For two weeks at Ndarakwai Ranch in Tanzania, Henderson worked with elephants as a research intern. When she wasn’t busy feeding them peanuts—again, all in the name of research—she’d head into the wild and quietly observe the fauna of Africa.

Wildebeest. Zebras. Guineafowl. Warthogs.

Did we mention she hung out with elephants?

“They’re amazing. Just amazing. You’ll see them far away, out in the bushes, but it doesn’t hit you until you get up close to them. Then it’s, ‘Oh, wow!’” Henderson says.

“They’re 8,000 pounds. The trunk is entirely muscle. They nudge you and you’ll fall over. Yet they have no inclination to hurt us. It’s only because they like us that we’re allowed to hang out with them.”

Working with animals isn’t new to Henderson. During the school year, the California native conducted primate research with the Psychology department’s monkeys in Hulings Hall, a job that carried over into summer. Last year, she also spent a day with elephants at the Pittsburgh Zoo thanks to a connection through her aunt, Elizabeth Asch.

So when Asch—an artist and conservationist living in Europe—offered to introduce her to Ndarakwai Ranch owner Peter Jones for a possible two-week internship, Henderson couldn’t pass up the opportunity. While there, she tailored her psychology interests to Nkarsis (16 years old) and Riziki (8 years old), two orphaned elephants discovered as babies by Jones’ crew at a nearby watering hole.

As poaching continues to affect the elephant population throughout Africa, tuskless baby elephants like Nkarsis and Riziki are left to fend for themselves—which often leads to death, Henderson says. With its sprawling 11,000-acre property, Ndarakwai Ranch’s aim is to preserve natural habitat, curb poaching, and help animal populations (particularly elephants) rebound.

“The ranch has enclosures. There’s always a keeper watching. It’s not to keep the elephants in, but to keep other things out,” Henderson says.

“But even then, the elephants are too smart. The people at the ranch would tell stories about how a keeper might fall asleep and Nkarsis would knock over a tree to break the fence. She’d walk around and eat some plants, then make a big trumpet noise to let him know, ‘Hey, I’m over here now!’ They’re full of stories like that.”

Much like working with Carleton’s monkeys, Henderson created tests to gauge the elephants’ intelligence and ability to read human cues. For instance, she would hold a peanut in her hand and turn her body to that same hand as a way of signaling to Nkarsis where she could find it. Because Nkarsis had been conditioned to respond to right hands—the one largely used by trainers to give treats—she ignored Henderson’s left. But eventually, she picked up on the constant switching and responded to the body cue.

“Crazy smart. It was only two weeks, and just a small thing we were looking at,” Henderson says. “The goal is to train them in bigger ways, to help with conservation. If humans can encourage elephants to create their own herds, teach them to stay away from poachers, and teach them to avoid eating townspeople’s crops … they’re much less likely to be killed.”

The biggest benefit of the trip: Being able to watch the elephants in their natural environment. Henderson noted small moments like watching the majestic creatures by the watering hole. Instead of eating all the lush vegetation in the area (which they could easily do since they eat a lot), they instinctively know to “conserve some of it for later”—an approach Henderson believes humans could learn from.

Then there are the fun, almost child-like gestures: Nkarsis handing Henderson a rock with her trunk as if to say, ‘Hey, let’s play,’ or when the elephants appeared to run and wave good-bye with their trunks as her crew drove away from the ranch.

“Those moments were so genuine,” Henderson says. “I’ve always loved animals and have always cared about conservation issues, so this definitely sparked a stronger passion in me. I really hope to go back in the future and help with some of the bigger initiatives we talked about.”

Our summer intern profiles focus on domestic and international internships funded by generous Carleton donors through the Career Career. Funds are competitively awarded each year, with applications evaluated on the basis of merit and financial need.