Elephants march in downtown L.A. to Staples Center at 4 a.m.

That sound you heard this morning was a herd of elephants stretching their legs around downtown.

At 4 a.m., 11 Asian elephants and seven horses strutted their stuff past picture-snapping police and even the acting mayor.

The Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus is in town -- barely overshadowed by the Michael Jackson memorial service. The events are both at Staples Center. The circus bows Wednesday evening. Both events bring a circus-like atmosphere, although the traditional elephant parade went off without incident. Let's hope the same can be said of that other spectacle.

After the jump, more photos of the pachyderms and the horses as they paraded under freeway overpasses and up Pico Avenue.

Thailand's elephants are black and white and mad all over as public interest shifts to new panda cub

The Thai public's fascination with that sort-of-cute giant panda cub born last month is understandable -- it's Thailand's first successful captive panda birth ever -- but it also has a downside.  Pity the poor Asian elephants, the animals that used to hold Thai heartstrings but have now been relegated to also-ran status.

What's a Thai elephant keeper to do?  Why, paint their giant charges with vivid, panda-style watercolors, of course!  That's just what the staff at the Ayutthaya Elephant Kraal did to make a statement about their beloved pachyderms' loss of status.  From the Bangkok Post:

Kraal manager Itthipan Kaolamai said staff were striking a blow for Thai elephant causes. Many of the beasts were still in need of state help, but in all the fuss over pandas were getting overlooked.

The government was showering money on the Chinese pandas, while ignoring its own national symbol, the elephant.

The Chiang Mai Zoo, home to the new panda cub, even plans to build a "snow house" for its burgeoning panda family at a cost of 20 million baht (nearly $600,000 U.S.), the Post reported.  So where's the 20-million-baht gold-plated elephant mud hole?

After receiving their extensive paint jobs, the elephants were paraded before a group of apparently jubilant children who seemed to have forgotten all about pandas.  Except for the fact that the elephants looked just like ... oh, never mind.  More photos after the jump!

Your morning adorable: Berlin Zoo's Asian elephant calf takes a bath

Ko Raya, a female Asian elephant calf, was born at the Berlin Zoo on March 15. She's been a big star ever since, making her public debut at the tender age of 4 days.  Now, she's an energetic 3-month-old who clearly enjoys her bath time!

Ko Raya is named for a Thai island. She's the third calf born to her mother, 22-year-old Pang Pha.

-- Lindsay Barnett

Photo credit: Fritz Reiss / Associated Press

Your morning adorable: Asian elephant calf at the Moscow Zoo

A month-old Asian elephant calf took her first long stroll at the Moscow Zoo today, accompanied, of course, by her mother. The baby is the first Asian elephant calf to be born at the Moscow Zoo in its history, and the zoo is holding a contest to name her.

More photos of mother and baby after the jump!

Four Asian elephants to deploy from Wild Animal Park to San Diego Zoo

How do you move four full-size Asian elephants 25 miles down Interstate 15 from the San Diego Zoo's Wild Animal Park to the zoo for the new Harry and Grace Steele Elephant Odyssey?

That's the task facing the zoo's elephant keepers. For a year, keepers have been working with Ranchipur, Cookie, Mary and Cha-Cha. (Sunita, the matriarch, was also to make the move but died recently after a battle with cancer.)

Supervising the preparation is Jeff Andrews, the zoo's elephant program manager, who also orchestrated the airlift of seven African elephants from South Africa to the Wild Animal Park in 2003.

At the new exhibit, set to open May 23, the four Asian elephants will join the zoo's three resident elephants and two dozen other species, including jaguars and California condors. Also in the exhibit will be replicas of the elephants' ancestors.

But first, the training for the trip. "There is no dominance in our system," Andrews said. "We are not making them do anything."

Through a system of food rewards, the four elephants have been trained to voluntarily enter giant crates, which will be lifted by cranes onto tractor-trailers for the convoy, to be escorted by the California Highway Patrol and San Diego police.

The process, whose timing is a secret, will be an all-day affair.

"The animals will be fine,'' Andrews said. "The people will be very tired at the end of the day."

UPDATE: The four elephants were moved without problems Saturday from the San Diego Zoo's Wild Animal Park to the zoo.

-- Tony Perry in San Diego

Photo:Ranchipur, a 42-year-old Asian elephant, spends his last days at the Wild Animal Park. Credit: Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times.

Elephants to star in San Diego Zoo's latest -- and largest -- exhibit

The San Diego Zoo is nearing completion of its biggest expansion ever: $45 million, four years in the making, 18 months of construction, 7.5 acres, to host 30 species.

The Harry and Grace Steele Elephant Odyssey is set to open May 23. Four Asian elephants now at the zoo's Wild Animal Park will be transferred to the exhibit, joining three elephants already at the zoo..

--Tony Perry, San Diego

Photo: Workers position a 10½-foot-tall Colombian mammoth sculpture. The 8,000-pound life-size replica of a female mammoth is one of eight statues to be featured in the Zoo's Harry and Grace Steele Elephant Odyssey exhibit.  Credit: Ken Bohn/AFP/Getty Images.

Your morning adorable: Baby Asian elephant at the Berlin Zoo

Ko Raya, a five-day-old female Asian elephant, made her big debut yesterday at the Berlin Zoo.  She's the third offspring of her 22-year-old mother, Pang Pha.  Her father is 15-year-old Victor.

Ko Raya is named for an island in Thailand.  She weighed about 370 pounds at birth.

More photos of baby and mother after the jump!

Your morning adorable: Working for peanuts

An elephant resident of France's Maubeuge Zoo accepts a treat from a keeper.  It's estimated that elephants' trunks contain about 40,000 individual muscles! 

--Lindsay Barnett

Photo: Francois Lo Presti / AFP/Getty Images

Birth makes 12 African elephants at Wild Animal Park

A birth announcement Friday from the San Diego Zoo's  Wild Animal Park.

A male African elephant, as yet unnamed, was born to Unmgani, brought to the park from Swaziland in 2003. The birth brings the park's African elephant population to 12.

Mother and 220-pound newborn will be watched for a few days before becoming introduced to the rest of the herd. The birth was eagerly awaited by the park's elephant-watchers: an elephant pregnancy lasts 22 months.

--Tony Perry, San Diego

Photo: Umngani and newborn. Credit: Ken Bohn / San Diego Zoo's Wild Animal Park.

Your morning adorable: Baby elephant takes a drink

Submitter Danie shares her great photo of a young African elephant having her breakfast near Nairobi, Kenya. 

To see more great reader photos, or to submit your own, check out the Your Scene album Wildlife.

--Lindsay Barnett

Photo: "Got milk?" by Danie/Your Scene