Photos: Elephants love playing in snow. Who knew?
We're beginning to sense a trend here. Elephants seem to be enjoying winter, and specifically having a blast playing with -- and, in some cases, eating -- snow.
The fact that elephants can paint masterful portraits has already been established. Can a pachyderm-constructed snowman be far behind?
Above, a resident of the Berlin Zoo is shown picking up snow and sticking it right into its own mouth in a series of photos taken last week. Clearly, this creative elephant has just discovered the concept of Sno Cones -- all that's missing is fruit flavoring.
After the jump, check out more photos of snow-loving elephants!
More fun with snow at the Berlin Zoo -- although it seems like this elephant hasn't yet learned that a snowball fight is a lot more fun with an opponent.
Our winter-loving elephant friend throws a snowball on its own head at the Berlin Zoo.
It holds a snowball -- made with its own trunk! -- at the Berlin Zoo. Off to build an elephant-sized snow fort, we have no doubt.
An elephant uses its trunk to knock snow into its mouth at the Berlin Zoo. Ingenuity is not just for humans, after all.
Moving from Germany to the Czech Republic, we find an Indian elephant tossing a snowball into its mouth at the Prague Zoo.
Numbi, an African elephant at the Schoenbrunn Zoo in Vienna, teaches her calf Tuluba that snow can be fun to play with and to eat.
You've got to hand it to little Tuluba -- he catches on quick!
RELATED PHOTO ESSAYS:
-- Lindsay Barnett
1st-5th photos: John MacDougall / AFP/Getty Images
6th photo: David W. Cerny / Reuters
7th-8th photos: Leonhard Foeger / Reuters
What elephants love is to be free. Elephants already captive cannot be released into the wild. However, breeding babies, like Tuluba to be incarcerated for life is unconscionable. Elephants in zoos live decades less than their natural lifespan. THAT is what we do to them - not to mention suffering in a life of deprivation.
Posted by: alyne16 | January 05, 2011 at 09:23 AM
To alyne16, Your right. It is painfully obivious to anyone with a brain in their head that Homo sapiens have been the scurge of the planet. We kill eachother, animals,the environment, anything we can, we destroy. Even through our glorious creations we destroy. The last true ruler of the planet were the dinosauers and we all know what happened to them...
Posted by: waskoma | January 06, 2011 at 12:35 PM
I agree with you both. It is heartbreaking each time I look at any photo of these wonderful animals in their manmade prisons.....and especially so of a baby who has been sentenced to 40 to 60 years of nothing but someone bringing a meal. How the general public puts up with this is incredible, leaving just a handful of us to complain.....which does no good. If everyone did, these animals would be freed into sanctuaries and no more of them would be captured or bred for humans to "watch". We can do that with binoculars or film of them all where they live!
Posted by: LauraC | January 08, 2011 at 04:42 AM