Meet Rosie, Kitty, Becky, and Sophie: The Preserve's Elephant Herd

Four Asian elephants live at The Preserve in Fredericksburg, Texas: Rosie, Kitty, Becky, and Sophie. Each one has her own personality, her own habits, and her own place in the herd, and getting to know them changes what a visitor notices during our Elephant Experience.

The four elephants are not simply exhibit animals housed together. They form a close, independent herd that spends each day within sight and sound of each other, even on the many hours they are not standing side by side.

The Herd Is a Close-Knit Group of Independent Elephants

All four elephants are older, independent animals who get along well together. They socialize and play together, and they are just as often found napping or grazing on their own, usually within seeing and hearing distance of the rest of the herd.

Kitty, Rosie, and Becky arrived at The Preserve more than 30 years ago, each from a different facility elsewhere in the United States that was closing or changing its program. Sophie joined the herd in 2024, the newest member by three decades. Her sweet personality helped her fit in quickly, and she already shares mud, play, and naptime with the elephants who came long before her.

Rosie Is The Preserve's Talkative, Playful Chatterbox

Rosie is 42 years old and has lived at The Preserve since 1994. Three words describe her: talkative, outgoing, and silly.

Rosie is the herd's resident chatterbox. She uses high-pitched, squeaky noises to communicate, most often while interacting with her trainers, and she talks back when spoken to. Her chatter frequently gets the other elephants excited and silly along with her.

Food motivates most of what Rosie does. She loves anything sweet, especially bananas and watermelon, though she avoids okra and bean sprouts. Her love of food, paired with a preference for shortcuts over exercise, explains her rather robust figure. During the herd's weekly painting sessions, she tilts her head back and forth and makes small squeaky noises, looking every bit as though she knows she is good at it.

Rosie is also smart in practical ways. On windy afternoons, she tucks a flake of hay between her legs to keep it from blowing away. She shares an easy friendship with Becky, who often shares treats with her, and she plays most often with Sophie, especially in the mud, a session that leaves them both needing a long bath afterward. At treat time, Rosie finishes her own plate fast and then "helps" a neighbor finish theirs, which has earned her a reputation among trainers as the herd's treat thief.

Kitty Is The Herd's Sassy, Senior Stateswoman

Kitty is 59 years old and arrived at The Preserve in 1990, making her the oldest member of the herd. Her personality is sassy, curious, and precocious.

Kitty asks for help when she needs it. Horseflies sometimes bite the top of an elephant's head or the middle of its back, spots a trunk cannot reach, and when that happens, Kitty walks to one of her trainers and lowers her head to the ground so they can brush the fly away.

Kitty shares a 16-year bond with Christian, one of her trainers, who met her as a teenager. Trainers describe the pair as having an interspecies relationship, and Kitty is at her most vocal around him: she is the elephant most likely to trumpet when excited, and she will trumpet on request when Christian asks her to. When asked to do something else, like moving over or standing still, she often thumps her trunk loudly on the ground first, a bit of attitude before she complies.

Kitty values her time with people as much as her time with the herd. While the other elephants graze or nap, she is often the one trying to get a trainer's attention instead. During the foot-care portion of an Elephant Experience, in which Kitty regularly takes part, she has a habit of yawning widely right as a trainer starts explaining the process, an expression guests read as boredom that reliably gets a laugh. At 59, she is in exceptional health for her age, a result trainers credit to good nutrition, exercise, and genetics, visible in her smooth gait, her spotted ears, and her shiny white toenails.

Becky Is The Herd's Gentle Little Sister

Becky is 39 years old and has lived at The Preserve since 1994. Sweet, easy-going, and playful describe her personality best.

Becky is the herd's pickiest eater. When treats are handed out and Rosie offers to "share," Becky selects only the pieces she really wants and lets Rosie finish the rest, a small routine trainers describe as consistently cute to watch. She loves hanging out with the other elephants more than any single food or toy, and her easy-going nature has made her a favorite of both the herd and her trainers, who compare her to a tag-along little sister.

Becky has unusually long eyelashes and light-colored eyes, and she often bats her eyelashes while she "talks," an expression that reads as flirtatious to the people around her. Her vocalizations are the same high-pitched squeaks Rosie makes, though less frequent. When Becky does have something to say, she tends to go on at length. She is closest in the herd to Kitty, and trainers point out that the herd's biggest and smallest elephants have become best friends. Visitors who watch for it will often catch Becky relaxing with her hind legs crossed, an easy-going pose that matches her personality.

Sophie Is The Newest Elephant, With a Mind of Her Own

Sophie is 56 years old and joined the herd in 2024, making her the most recent arrival at The Preserve. Smart, quirky, and independent sum up her personality.

Sophie has an unusual habit: she selects a small rock and carries it in the point of her lower lip, sometimes for a short while and sometimes for most of the day. The rock usually falls out when she drinks water, and she does not stay attached to any one rock for long before choosing a new one.

Mud is Sophie's favorite activity. She uses her feet to stir up as big a mess as possible in very little time, and she is happiest when the other elephants join in. She is also a champion napper who takes several naps a day, and she has figured out that resting with her back on the high side of a sand pile makes it easier to stand back up afterward, a smart accommodation for an older, four-ton animal.

Sophie is quieter than the rest of the herd most of the time, but her joyful hooting and trumpeting get loud during play. She is closest to Rosie, and the two run, play in the mud, and act silly together despite Sophie's age. Her feet turn outward in a pattern trainers call duck-toed, so she receives close monitoring and corrective trimming to keep her gait healthy. Visitors can watch for whether her rock of the day is still tucked in her lip during a visit. Although she has been at The Preserve less than two years, Sophie already performs almost every behavior the older elephants know, and she continues to learn quickly.

Trainers Build Each Elephant's Day Around Her Individual Needs

Each elephant's day begins around 6:30 in the morning with an individual check of how she spent the night, including how much hay she ate and whether she lay down to sleep. Elephants sleep lying down or standing up, typically for 4 to 6 hours across a 24-hour period, and every elephant has her own pattern. After the morning check, each elephant receives grain, vitamins, and minerals tailored to her needs, followed by a full bath in which trainers scrub, exfoliate, and check every part of her body for changes.

The rest of the day mixes exercise, enrichment, and rest. Morning walks and individual training sessions build strength and give each elephant mental stimulation, and the herd spends the middle of the day in outdoor yards with shade, sand piles, and elephant-proof toys. One day a week, the elephants spend an hour or two painting pieces that are sold in The Preserve's gift shop, and once a month, each elephant receives a pedicure. Foot care varies by elephant: Rosie wears a custom orthotic for a leg that is slightly shorter than the other, while Sophie's duck-toed feet need closer monitoring and more frequent trimming. Evenings bring a second walk, a trip to water, and a return to individual stalls that sit side by side, so the herd stays together even overnight.

Our Elephant Experience Lets Visitors Meet the Herd in Person

Gary Johnson, co-founder of The Preserve, put it this way: "People say an elephant never forgets. What they don't say is you never forget an elephant. They touch your heart and soul in ways you never imagined. We are blessed to be the stewards of these majestic creatures."

Guests often respond to the elephants with visible emotion, and trainers report that many are moved to tears the first time they see or touch one. The effect reaches beyond a single visit: trainers describe a calming presence that seems to connect especially strongly with guests facing mental or physical challenges.

To meet Rosie, Kitty, Becky, and Sophie in person, book an Elephant Experience at The Preserve in Fredericksburg, Texas.