An elephant never forgets

I love elephants! It was one of the animals we saw a lot of over the past week in the Kruger Park in South Africa.

This herd was funny to watch. They were in a little clearing and the center elephant began sucking up the sandy dirt in her trunk and tossing it over her back. We were told this helps to keep bugs away.

Elephants are really amazing creatures. Did you know that elephants can live to be 60 years old? And, according to researchers, elephants can recognize and keep track of the locations of up to 30 companions at one time. Other researchers, who studied three herds of elephants during a severe 1993 drought at Tanzania's Tarangire National Park, found that they not only recognize one another but also recall routes to alternate food and water sources when their usual areas dry up.

Patterns

Sometimes you don't need a whole picture to know what you're looking at. Sometimes just a glimpse of a pattern or texture gives it away.

Afternoon delight

I spent today enjoying some up-close-and-personal interaction with the beasts at the Los Angeles Zoo at the 23rd Annual Photo Day.

The elephants at the zoo have had a remodeled home for about three years now. It's such a big area that sometimes you can walk all the way around and not see any of the three elephants that live there. But today that wasn't the case.

It was hot today in southern California. 90 degree-hard-to-believe-it's-fall hot. So it was no surprise to see this elephant thoroughly enjoying a dip in the water.

She started by spraying herself, then lay down and rolled until she was completely submerged. Her trunk came up briefly like a periscope, then back down for some more rolling. When she was done, she looked delighted with herself.