I’d like to thank our editorial team at Landscape Management for giving me the opportunity to share this. As an account manager with the magazine, I read a story — “Shooting an Elephant” — in one of our competitor’s recent issues, and felt compelled to share with our readers a few of my firsthand experiences with these marvelous mammals.
My degree is in zoology from The Ohio State University — and in a past life, my workplace really was a zoo. I interacted daily with elephants for eight years at Audubon Park Zoological Gardens in New Orleans. I started as a zookeeper for reptiles, then moved on to take care of the big cats, then the elephants. Eventually, I advanced to assistant curator of mammals, before leaving the zoo.
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| Ric Abernethy is truly LM’s resident expert on elephants! | |
What follow are just a few of tidbits I learned about these marvelous, God-given creatures with whom we share Earth:
- Elephants cry, play, have incredible memories and even laugh!
- The elephant is the largest animal that lives on land. It can grow to 13 feet in height and weigh as much as a school bus.
- An elephant has four knees, but is incapable of jumping.
- Elephants can run 24 mph for short distances.
- The elephant’s trunk is the most amazing appendage on Earth. Not only is it used for breathing and responsible for the animal’s remarkable sense of smell, it can suck up to 4 gallons of water for drinking or to spray on its back for bathing. An elephant can also use its trunk to push over small trees or suction up things as small as a quarter.
- Like humans, elephants can live to be 70 or older.
- Female elephants start having babies around 16.
- Baby elephants stay with, and are protected by, their mothers for two years.
- Elephants are sensitive animals. If a baby elephant complains, the entire family will rumble and head over to touch and caress it.
- When the herd is threatened, its members form a ring around the babies for protection.
- The elephant is the one animal, besides humans, that will adopt an orphaned infant whose mother has been killed.
- Elephants grieve at a loss of a stillborn baby.
- Elephants have greeting ceremonies when a friend that has been away for some time returns to the group. I witnessed this firsthand when I returned to New Orleans 10 years after I left. While visiting the zoo, as I approached the elephant exhibit, the marvelous animals were about 40 yards away, minding their own business. With just voice recognition, they turned their heads toward me after I called out each of their names. They all ran to me as I said, “Come here!” With their feet hanging over the moat’s edge, stretching with their trunks out, I once again could pet them. These incredibly intelligent, thoughtful, caring animals actually were holding a greeting ceremony for me after my decade-long absence! It was like I never left.
- Elephants also show tremendous respect and reverence for the dead. They take great care of the skeletons of lost loved ones.
Please don’t misunderstand me. I am not against hunting. For example, there are more deer today than when the pilgrims first set foot on American soil. In many suburbs, overgrown deer populations have become serious safety hazards.
Having said that, for me, “Shooting an Elephant” is a little different …
