I fed a mamma and baby elephant bananas in Thailand once - it was amazing. We had to give whole bunches of bananas to the mama elephant. The guide said she would get very angry if we fed them to her one by one. "like as if someone try to feed you one grain of rice, another grain of rice..." So funny.

Oh, Oh. Let me finish off that sentence for you.

'If only all the people I trick for, had the manners of an elephant!!'

Hehehe.

Great post and piccie!

Although I have seen that particular elephant be very grabby, eating off the trees that are to the left of the frame, the other side of the fence. He had to R-E-A-C-H with his trunk to get them. Is that the elephant equivalent of barging into the kitchen to get food?

Mayhap you think of your tricks more in the line of Komodo Dragons--they'll stealthily watch every move of their food, quickly charge over to grab it and bite the head off anything that gets in the way. And if you don't die from the attack, you'll die later from poisoning brought on by their severe lack of dental hygiene.

Small correction... "habitat" means "the natural home of a plant or animal"

the zoo is not that.

two words. kruger park. or itala game reserve. my holiday in south africa was bar none the most exquisite experience of my holidaying life. drive from the cape along the coast to johannesburg. fantastic. and in the game reserves, you really do get to see elephants in their natural habitat. and they are stunning. as are the lions lounging in the road two feet in front of your car!

James beat me to it. The zoo is far from natural habitat. Seeing animals in zoos makes me very very sad.

And what kind of research were you doing at the Zoo?
Just curious. I want to know...The World Famous San Diego Zoo is due for a visit on my ticket.

Tootles,
Anni :-)

Elephants have been my favorite animal to read about and to watch since my childhood. You have given them a new grace and respect that I hadn't ever seen before. Bravo!

Beautiful.

By the way, a bunch of elephants is currently on its way from Thailand, where they were subject to cruelty, to Australia's Melbourne Zoo.

Anyone who says a zoo is vastly inferior to an animal's natural habitat should check out the lives of innumerable species in their supposedly natural habitats throughout Africa, Asia and other places where they are under constant threat from poaching, cruelty, loss of habitat and other human-derived excesses. In zoos they have reasonable freedom of movement, conditions under which to reproduce, freedom from cruelty, lack of predators and food.

"Animals in their natural habitat" does not equal zoo. Zoos break my heart. Polar bears in Miami's heat, etc? That's unethical as far as I'm concerned.