Thursday, 1 January 2015

Elephant No. 90: A Tidy Little Elephant

After many months of not posting, I figured it was time to start up this blog again, this time mostly with contributions from others. Many people have kindly been sending me elephant videos, photos and fun trinkets over the past several months, so I'll be featuring them here, along with a few elephants from me.

First up, this wonderful little clip from my friend Lynn Owen, whose work I profiled in this blog about a year ago. Given the post-holiday detritus that never seems to get entirely put away, I think I need a little guy like this to help out.

Happy New Year!






Elephant Lore of the Day
People can be mighty dim at times. Despite well-publicized episodes of African elephants attacking—and even killing—people in the wild, the photograph below shows a group of Italian tourists who thought it would be great to have their photos taken near a large African elephant.

Happening upon the elephant at the Afsaal picnic area in South Africa's Kruger National Park, the Italians marched over towards the elephant and posed with it, as though it were a tame Asian elephant used to humans.

Local resident Sheree Theron and her husband warned the tourists to move back, to no avail. Luckily the elephant wasn't terribly interested in the tourists, and paid them little attention. Strangely, the tourist guide watched the incident from under a tree.

As a rule, tourists are supposed to stay inside their cars, and keep a 50-metre distance between themselves and wild elephants at all times. 

Sadly, when there are deadly encounters between elephants and humans, the elephant is often declared a "rogue" and destroyed. With elephant populations continuing to decline around the world, the loss of even one elephant to a misguided tourist is one too many, in my opinion.


Italian tourists approach a wild African elephant.
Photo: Sheree Theron
Source: http://www.dieburger.com/nuus/2014-03-19-toeriste-
waag-hul-lewe-naby-kruger-olifant


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2 comments:

  1. Anonymous2 January 2015 at 06:45

    Great to see you back on the blogging world, Sheila! It is very interesting to see how the elephant gently puts the trash on the bottom of the barrel. Striking, really.

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    Replies
    1. Sheila Singhal2 January 2015 at 07:07

      Thanks, Barb! Isn't he an amazing little fellow? I wonder where he learned it...

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