Sweet Revenge

An Augustus Gloop-like guttersnipe gets justice served in the form of an elephant smack decades after the original sin. Next time you think about taunting an innocent baby, remember, an elephant never forgets. A rolo commercial to make you smile.

Little Orphan Pachy

The BBC series, "Elephant Diaries," shows orphaned baby elephants playing football, cuddling with their keepers, and chasing warthogs at the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust in Nairobi, Kenya. Elephants abandoned by their mothers through human intervention or poaching, learn to live in the wild so they can eventually transfer to a reserve in Tsavo. Co-hosts Michaela Strachan and Jonathan Scott played a major part in caring for the babies. In between hosting they feed the elephants, played with them, and tried to stay professional while roving trunks attempted to interrupt their line deliveries.
"Elephant Diaries" will air Thursday, November 22. at 8pm on ABC.
http://www.theage.com.au/news/tv--radio/outsize-orphans-offered-second-chance/2007/11/14/1194766747027.html

Bend it Like Beckham

An athletic specimen displays punting skills and power kicks with impeccable trunk eye coordination. The elephant even flips the ball over his head and kicks with his hind legs. To top it all off, he gingerly walks on his back legs and drops the ball in the basketball hoop. This pachys got game.

The Art of War

More than 300 elephants reenacted centuries old wartime tactics to the blasts of cannon fire during Thailand's 47th Annual Elephant Roundup in the small city of Surin. According to the International Herald Tribune, the week-long festival celebrates the elephant as a patriotic symbol and a friend of local tribal communities. Daily parades line up thousands of visitors on the sidelines offering treats to the processing pachyderms and one 19-year-old elephant, Ben Sen, enjoyed his first annual roundup. Ben Sen appreciated the sweet bananas from German tourists and "sang a song" to earn more fruit from admiring fans.
Full story: http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/11/20/asia/AS-GEN-Thailand-Elephant-Roundup.php

Beach Bum

The worst part about a trip to the shore are those stubborn sand grits that resist leaving bathing suit bottoms and beach bags no matter how hard you rinse or shake them. This baby elephant embraces the sand with dogged determination and gleefully rubs his body all over the surf at a beach in Krabi, Thailand.

Pachy Prose

Sara Gruen's, Water for Elephants, tells the fictional memoir of life in a traveling circus during the Depression-era. The story of lemonade-loving Rosie - an elephant who has trouble following commands- drives the narrative of the novel. Gruen writes in her author's note that she studied elephants' behavior and body language at the Kansas City Zoo.
New York Times book reviewer Elizabeth Judd writes how the research paid off by referencing an excerpt from the novel: "I look up just as he flicks the cigarette. It arcs through the air and lands in Rosie's open mouth, sizzling as it hits her tongue. She roars, panicked, throwing her head and fishing inside her mouth with her trunk. August marches off. I turn back to Rosie. She stares at me, a look of unspeakable sadness on her face. Her amber eyes are filled with tears."
Check out Judd's full review at http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/04/books/review/04judd.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

A Tree Grows in Thailand

Locals in Sattahip, Thailand claim to see elephant ghosts haunting the ground near a very unusual tree. The base of the tree trunk reveals an elephant face and protruding trunk. Avoided at night by superstitious locals, the tree receives offerings of banana bunches during the day and many claim series of numbers appear by scratching the bark. One person won the lottery three times after picking these numbers.
-Picture and story from http://www.pattayacitynews.net/news_14_11_50_2.htm-

Happy Feet

This baby elephant can dance rings around that upstart penguin Mumble. Probably the cutest GE commercial in existence, we get to see a computerized image of an elephant splashing around the puddles in the jungle while befuddled toucans and chimps look on.

Long Live the King

Thailand has its own set of "Seven Wonders." Elephant Polo made the the Tourism Authority of Thailand's calendar as the 6th largest event as part of a promotion campaign for the country's unique attractions. The King's Cup Elephant Polo tournament began in 2001 as a charitable event to raise funds for the National Elephant Institute in Lampang, Northern Thailand. Since its inception, the event raised more than $175,000 U.S. dollars. The 2008 tournament will take place from March 31 to April 6.
http://www.etravelblackboard.com/index.asp?id=71596&nav=83
-Photo courtesy of Anantara Resorts-

The Magic Touch

Thailand has some crazy offerings when it comes to displaying its fine collection of wild elephants. This woman enjoys a nice rubdown from a skilled elephant masseuse. A "happy ending" with a PG rating, the post-massage treat comes in the form of a big slobbery kiss from an elephant trunk. Places like the Maesa Elephant Camp in Chiang Mai, Thailand, provide ways to conserve Asian elephants presence in the wild by inviting visitors to enjoy a "Thai Massage" also known as an elephant massage. The camp also has painting and sports activities for the 78 elephants that live on their grounds.
http://www.maesaelephantcamp.com/ourcamp.html

Picture Perfect

Traveling exhibit Ashes and Snow features more than 60 photographs of pachyderm proportions of people interacting with animals. Photographer Gregory Colbert features elephants in many of his pictures and captures our inherent fascination for the largest land animal. The sepia-toned quality of the photographs exudes an ethereal aura and highlights the simple bond between human and beast. You can order prints online at www.ashesandsnow.org or view a slideshow of the exhibit.

Pachys Playin' Polo

Let's take a moment to ponder the Brits' fascination with polo. A bunch of men dressed like jockeys perched on top of horses swinging an elongated croquet mallet against a wooden ball - yawn. At least Scotland added some spice to the sport by introducing elephants as the proverbial beasts of burden. Telegraphnepal.com announced the official start to the 26th annual World Elephant Polo competition on Monday, Nov. 19 in Nepal. Nepal is credited with creating the modern game. Teams include Nepal, Thailand, Scotland, and Sri Lanka.

A Little Soft-Shoe

A multi-talented baby elephant puts on his boogie shoes and kicks his little feet on the pristine sand of Phuket, Thailand. The dance exudes impeccable rhythm as well as a knack for blowing in and out of a silver harmonica. Elephants' musical talents also appear locally in Syracuse in the Rosamond Gifford Zoo where Siri also plays the harmonica. Director of public relations Lorrell Walter says, "she doesn't know what she is playing but she has a good time."

Snow Day

Elephant enrichment programs at the Rosamond Gifford Zoo often add a new twist to favorite childhood activities. During the winter, zookeeper Shawn Graham makes snowmen filled with carrots, apples, and sometimes jellybeans, that the elephants destroy in order to get their trunks on the treats. Jellybeans are their favorite since elephants have a naturally sweet tooth because of the availability of sugar cane in the wild.
-Picture of African elephant from the San Diego Zoo-

Contributing Members of Society

The National Geographic News reported that an accommodating elephant lent his services to aid in cleanup after the tropical cyclone Sidr stranded an abandoned bus in Barisal, Bangladesh.
-Photograph by Pavel Rahman/AP-

Bursting Bubbles

The childhood activity of blowing thin pearly bubbles from a soapy liquid with a plastic wand has a new meaning for the elephants at the Rosamond Gifford Zoo. Elephant zookeeper Shawn Graham sets up a high-tech bubble machine that the elephants play with. "They chase the bubbles and try to stick them in their mouths," says Graham. Gone are the days of losing the bubble wand in the bottle of solution or blowing too hard resulting in an eyeful of painful soap suds. These spoiled elephants get the deluxe turbo machine. As you can see in the picture, Mali appreciates the luxury.
-Photo courtesy of Lorrell Walter-

Mind Your Manners

Proper etiquette fails to provide a polite way to belch. Good thing elephants feel little remorse about their less dainty qualities.

Art School

Artful elephants paint to the tune of Canon in D Major. Slightly melodramatic, yes, but you get to see one carrying its own tool box of paints and the paintings of flowers put most kindergarteners to shame. But somehow, maybe it's just me, these paintings seem a little too good...

Well Done

Rescue workers in Vettamppara, India, saved a baby elephant from the bottom of a 20-foot-deep well late Wednesday afternoon. Reported in www.hindu.com, the elephant fell in the well early Monday morning and suffered minor cuts and abrasions on its forehead and sides. The elephant joined the Kodanadu wildlife rescue center as the newest member of a family of seven elephants, two of which helped with the rescue.
-Photo by Jason Butler-

Fire It Up

Warning: side effects may include burning, itching, and some very angry elephants. In order to curb the rampages and casualties caused by elephants with bellies full of rice beer, officials in the state of Assam, India, will consider using chili-smeared rope fencing to keep wild pachyderms at bay. Reported in www.theaustralian.news.com.au/, "hot fencing" uses Bhot Jolokia, the Guinness Book of World Records' hottest chili.

Circus Escape

A trio of crafty elephants - Suzy, Bunny, and Minny - escaped from the Garden Brothers Circus last July and wandered lazily through a nearby neighborhood in the Canadian town of Newmarket. According to www.citynews.ca/, police responded to a phone call around 2:30 a.m. that elephants were loose a suburban neighborhood. After the elephant trainers lead the group back to the circus grounds, resident Shu Mei noticed some rather large Tootsie Roll-like droppings on her lawn. She received free tickets to the circus.

Aet

A master at work.

Going Global

One of Aet's more prestigious clients includes actor Leonardo DiCaprio. This four-year-old elephant is one of the many artists from Thailand's Elephant Conservation Center whose profits from painting sales help fund elephant sanctuaries in Southeast Asian countries. Since these elephant paintings appear in museums and upscale auction houses like Christie's, paintings sell for a hefty price. Aet's "Summer Eruption," goes for $307.95 at www.novica.com. The website consolidates the art of many elephants from different conservation centers.
Siri at the Rosamond Gifford Zoo also does private paintings the zoo sells at auctions or for donors.
Get the full story about elephant paintings at NationalGeographic.com:http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2002/06/0626_020626_elephant.html

Pachyderm Picassos

Siri's penchant for fine arts supposedly blossomed in her early years at the Rosamond Gifford Zoo. Her trainers noticed that she grabbed rocks or sticks to carve etchings in the concrete wall of her exhibit. Painting is one of the enrichment activities this 40-year-old Asian elephant loves the best, says zookeeper Shawn Graham. Whenever the easel appears, Siri gets noticeably excited. Romani, another artistic elephant at Rosamond, performed her first public painting at the Elephant Extravaganza in August.
"They each have unique strokes and you can tell who did the painting," says Graham. Siri holds the paint brush on the side of her trunk while Romani sticks the brush in her nostril. A connoisseur will notice Romani is the more abstract of the two using short, choppy strokes in one section while Siri uses long and slow strokes across the entire canvas.
-Photo provided by Lorrell Walter of Rosamond Gifford Zoo-

Reality Check

Some people roll their eyes at the prospect of a 10,000 pound animal attending University of Alabama Football games. The editorial board of The Crimson White, the university's student newspaper, has strong reservations. In an opinion piece, concerns ranged from entrances in Bryant-Denny stadium being large enough for an elephant to fit through to the exorbitant cost of maintaining a safe, humane habitat for elephant. "Bringing an elephant on campus for game day would be an incredible waste of money just for the novelty of saying we have an elephant. It isn't worth it."
Animal rights activists are also less than amused. I met Amber Coon, campaign coordinator for Syracuse Animal Rights Organization, at her information table in the student center at Syracuse University. I asked her opinion on the issue. She stared coolly ahead and stated, "The only proper place for an elephant is in her natural habitat. There is no way to accommodate all of the elephant's mental and physical needs."

Visions of Mascot Grandeur

Sure, Big Al can play the drums, schmooze with crowds of adoring Crimson Tide fans, and shake his cute little elephant tail across the turf at Alabama half-time shows. But, at the end of the day, he is just a student in an oversized elephant mascot costume. Alabama's student government association (SGA) seeks to change that. The only thing superior to Big Al as far as pre-game pomp goes might be acquiring the largest land mammal on earth - a real elephant.
LSU has Mike the Tiger and Auburn has an eagle, so true 'Bama pride should reflect extreme dedication with an elephant on campus, at least, that's what SGA thinks. "Football in the south is second only to breathing," says SGA president R.B. Walker. In our phone interview, Walker stressed how the student committee looking into the matter was still in its preliminary planning stages. The many options include simply renting an elephant for games, purchasing one, or sponsoring one from afar. "We are not taking this lightly, we want to make the elephant as happy and comfortable as possible," says Walker.

Seeing Pink Elephants

In the tradition of inebriated elephants, Dumbo's champagne trip in the 1941 Disney classic pioneered psychedelic highs for intoxicated pachyderms everywhere. The "Pink Elephants on Parade" sequence shows this favorite circus animal in the shape of yellow and green worms, a camel, and a belly dancer with a rotund gut. The pop culture website retrocrush.com rates "Pink Elephants" at #90 on a list of "The 100 Scariest Movie Scenes."

You Don’t Really Give a F***

The plight of drunken pachyderms failed to inspire Miss Hilton to open her Fendi wallet for the cause. Publicist Lori Berk denied Paris made comments about helping intoxicated elephants in the state of Meghalaya, according to news.com/au. Hilton sympathizes, of course, "It is becoming really dangerous. We need to stop making alcohol available to them."

Booze Blues

Mötley Crüe may have a new competitor in the realm of drunken misbehavior and raucous rebel rousing. Last month, a herd of 40 elephants wandered into a local village in Meghalaya, India and discovered tin and plastic drums filled with rice beer. Six inebriated elephants electrocuted themselves lifting a utility pole. Check out http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21432722/ for the full story.

Smashing Pumpkins at the Oregon Zoo

An effortless tap of the foot crushes an 880 pound pumpkin from an Oregon farm. These patient pachyderms practice self-control and perform a few tricks before smashing a pumpkin filled with cucumbers, nutmeg, and other goodies.

The Great Pumpkin

Unattended pumpkins on neighbors' porches make it nearly impossible for roguish adolescents to behave. Hearing the satisfying smack of flesh and rinds against the pavement turns even the most law-abiding citizens into pumpkin snatchers. Elephants share the same thrill of destruction. Many zoos in the country give their elephants 600-800 pound pumpkins to smash and munch on for an audience as part of an enrichment program in the Fall. On November 2, three female elephants, including 40-year-old Siri, broke an 850 pound pumpkin with only one swipe of their trunks at the Rosamond Gifford Zoo in Syracuse, NY. One elephant practiced proper hygiene and washed her pumpkin piece in the pool before devouring the rest.
Check out Alex Shebar's pumpkin smash story at: http://media.www.dailyorange.com/media/storage/paper522/news/2007/11/02/Feature/Smashing.Pumpkins.Elephants.Star.In.Annual.Halloween.Bash-3074506.shtml