#ellie-the-elephant

#ellie-the-elephant

Somebody sent to this world to try to give people hope in dark times, because without hope, we fall into apathy and do nothing, and in the dark times that we are living in now, if people don't have hope, we're doomed. How can we bring little children into this dark world we've created and let them be surrounded by people who've given up?

Among African elephants, "Big Tuskers" refers to bulls that grow tusks so long they sometimes scrape the ground. Each one can weigh well over 100 pounds. These giant, ivory incisors continually grow throughout an elephant's life, and males typically have much larger tusks than females.

Samba and Tango were brought to Marwell zoo, but Samba escaped through a hole in their enclosure, prompting a search that has gained national attention.

The House of Elements, set to become the crown jewel of Orientarium Zoo in Łódź, Poland, takes the classical elements (earth, ice, water, fire, and air) and transforms them into a 6,000-square-meter narrative experience. Rather than designing a building where you walk from exhibit to exhibit, VMA created a continuous downward-then-upward journey that mirrors the evolution of life itself. Designer: VMA Design Studio for Orientarium Zoo

The list of feats Andrew Schulz has witnessed an elephant perform with its trunk is as long as, well, an elephant's trunk. These powerful proboscises are strong enough to push over 900 pound trees and gentle enough to pick up a tortilla chip without breaking it. They can snuffle along the ground to sense vibrations from far-off herd movements. They can be used to solve puzzles, peel bananas, craft tools, console a fellow pachyderm or a human friend.

The panda house at Ueno Zoo in Tokyo is not due to open for several hours, but visitors are already milling around its entrance, pausing to pose for photographs in front of murals of the facility's most beloved residents. A short walk away the gift shop is doing a roaring trade in themed souvenirs from cuddly toys and stationery to T-shirts and biscuits. The visitors are here to say goodbye to Xiao Xiao and Lei Lei.

A long, winding path takes guests around and under felled trees. Aged gray tree hunks form arches, for instance, over bridges that tower over clay-colored paths with hoof prints. The design is meant to reorient us, to take us on a trail walked not by humans but traversed and carved by elephants, a creature still misunderstood, vilified and hunted for its cataclysmic-like ability to reshape land, and sometimes communities.

In Texas, the Houston Zoo has prepared its buildings and barns with heaters designed to withstand extreme conditions, the zoo said in a blog post on Friday. Animals will have access to extra hay and bedding, and food was stocked in advance. Across the Zoo, sensitive plants are being protected with coverings, and generators are positioned to provide backup power if needed, the blog post said.

Our team has been so dedicated working around the clock, over time, whatever it takes to continue monitoring this outbreak. It's a really hard, emotional thing to go through as undergraduate, graduate students and young scientists to watch the seals that you've gotten to know over the years get sick.

Demand for safari holidays is growing, so how can you do it without harming animals, people or the landscape? Last summer, images were shared of a scene in Tanzania's Serengeti National Park - a large group of jeeps and dozens of tourists standing outside taking pictures of 'The Great Migration' and blocking wildebeests' traditional crossing point. Jeep traffic jams have also been widely reported in other parks, including Sri Lanka's Yala, known for its high density of leopards.

An elephant's trunk is a marvelous thing, flexible enough to bend and stretch as it forages for food, but also stiff enough to grasp and maneuver even delicate objects like peanuts or a tortilla chip. That's because the trunk is highly sensitive when it comes to sensing touch. Scientists have determined that the whiskers lining the trunk are crucial for that sensitivity thanks to their unique structure, amounting to a kind of innate "material intelligence, according to a new paper published in the journal Science.