tickling some ivory

My favorite part of my recent trip to Arkansas was a visit to the Riddle Elephant Sanctuary (www.elephantsanctuary.org), which is home to 8 Asian and African elephants aged 5 months to 50 years old. We were allowed to pet some of the older Asian females, Miss Betty Boop (Boopers) in particular. What really made a huge impact on me was when Scott Riddle said, “There are no such thing as ‘wild’ elephants. Even if elephants do not live in captivity, they are impacted by humans in some way, shape, or form, whether it be by nearby farmers, safari’ing tourists, or poachers. Within ten years every elephant on this planet will live in captivity.” How depressing, huh? There is no wild.
Another interesting revelation came by way of Toby, a young African male who swayed side to side a la Stevie Wonder. He’s what they refer to as “challenged,” meaning, he failed to fully develop, both mentally and physically. It had never occurred to me that animals, as well as humans, can suffer from mental and physical retardation. Interesting. I could have watched the elephants all day long, especially Aimee and her baby, Miss Bettes. Toby, the five-year-old African male, was born at the sanctuary on Animal Planet, I need to look up the name of the show. When I told Mama about the elephants, her first reaction was “Did you cry?!” That depends on your definition of cry. I definitely had tears in my eyes, but I’m pretty sure it was a result of the ammonia released from all of the pee.

Dirk was so jazzed about the video clips I got at the Sanctuary that he set a few to music. Here’s a video of Max doing his booty-shakin’ dance in the hopes of receiving some treats from Scott.