NEW RELEASES
Besides their extraordinary eyelashes…
People, especially Ava, are always asking me why I love elephants so much. This article from Sept 25, 1912 explains everything.
At the circus grounds before the beginning of the big Barnum & Bailey show, a few bystanders saw a most
remarkable display of elephant sense and sympathy.
Two of the big fellows were standing on the grounds, slowly munching a bale of hay, when suddenly one of the elephants took a step or two and held up his foot as if something had hurt him.
He then touched his companion on the back with his trunk, and when the other big fellow looked around he found the hurt elephant still holding up his foot and waggling his head from side to side in pain.
Immediately, the second elephant walked over to the assistance of the first one, and taking the hurt foot in his trunk, he removed a large sliver.
Very carefully the first elephant stepped down on the ground, and found to his relief that the pain was gone. The other big fellow then rubbed his trunk on his back, taking the sliver out.
After a glance of mutual understanding and sympathy, the two biggest animals of the jungle amicably returned to their hay, and the bystanders who were watching them received a lesson in animal love which they will never forget.
I also love the anthropomorphism in this article. I do it all the time, but still.
11 years ago, I spent 3 days at Kichwa Tembo (Elaphant Head) in the Masai Mara Reserve in southwestern Kenya. We drove out 5 times during my stay at the camp, to see an amazing array of animals in the wild. I got a fabulous photo of a mom and her baby elephant. (It was October, which is spring in those parts, so most animal species had babies.) Anyway, the thing that really struck me about the elephants was that they would be walking along in a long line, sort of like a parade. But, when any of the humans in jeeps came into the area, all the adults stopped and made a giant circle around the babies and youngsters to protect them. It was very heart-warming to see.
When my children were little, I took off a mental health day with one of them, while the other was in school. We went to the zoo early on a hot morning. (Not like there isn’t a lot of those around–hot mornings.) and I will never forget a particular event. We spent hours, okay maybe 15 minutes, at the elephant encounter area. The elephants were getting a shower from the zoo keeper with the hose. The smaller one would turn and preen and lift one leg, then another, then a long trunk, arch his back. He was clearly loving it for all he was worth. He probably would have stayed in the water until he turned into a prune. But honestly how could you tell if an elephant looked pruney with all those wrinkles? They are so utterly magnificant and gentle all roled into one wonderful species.