Elephants forever! But only we can make it happen

                                                                                     AMNH image

It’s up and running: “The Secret World of Elephants” at New York’s American Museum of Natural History (AMNH).  And of course, readers, I hope it’s part of your plans for the next couple months.    

The museum’s 7-minute video about elephants should spur attendance at this exciting exhibition that covers the 60 million year-evolution of the elephant family, showing ancient and modern elephants via casts, fossils and life-size models: meet a woolly mammoth and see a dwarf elephant, just 4 feet high at the shoulders!     https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RTbLHV7lDV8

Elephants, those marvelous creatures who have played major roles in human history, are endangered (at best) and facing extinction (at worst).  For many years, humans’ mad desire for ivory and the resulting slaughter of elephants for their tusks have been largely to blame. 

Maternal love

And in some places now, elephants and farmers are competing for living space and food crops that are grown by and for people, but that also mightily appeal to elephants.  Less conservation-minded and hungry themselves, angry farmers may kill the elephants who eat up their crops.

Conservationists work diligently to combat such threats to elephants, starting with the poachers who kill for tusks and profit and the countries where ivory is still a valuable commodity.  They’ve also devised wise ways to deter elephants from raiding gardens.   

Illustrating another way to minimize elephant loss, the Humane Society of the US recently applauded Canada, where “landmark regulations” that ban trade in elephant ivory . . . as well as imports of hunting trophies . . . . take effect early January, ’24.  If wildlife hunters can’t bring home their “trophies” to brag about, they may be less inclined to hunt.     https://tinyurl.com/39tdd8ck   

Elephants have been extolled for numerous behavioral wonders (that humans could learn from!).  Physically, they’re also marvels.  

Only consider their trunks – far stronger and more versatile than they may look.  An elephant’s (boneless) trunk can weigh up to 300 pounds and lift 700 pounds, yet thanks to remarkable musculature, it’s amazingly flexible. 

Gabon landscape with elephant

Fusing elephants’ upper lip and nose, trunks can be used for -- take a breath! -- “everything from drinking water, foraging, bathing, smelling, exploring, tossing dust and mud onto their bodies, picking up and manipulating objects, blowing objects away or sniffing them in, signaling aggression, producing sounds, tactile contact with other elephants,” and more.  (Thanks for these specs to the Performing Animal Welfare Society [pawsweb.org]).

Till I get there to see for myself, I can only hope that “Secret World of Elephants” includes effective pitches to savor and protect elephants -- animals who deserve to live forever!

 Canned that idea!

After my total failure to inspire readers to creatively re-purpose the numerous jangling metal cat-food cans, I’ll propose a better, more worthy idea now and see if it flies: 

how about a pet ambulance to take pets to an animal hospital when their families can’t?  

Some loving pet parents simply don’t drive or can’t drive in dark or bad weather, while desperate to get a pet with major health issues to care-providers right away.  That's a job for . . . a pet ambulance! 

Maybe this idea already exists somewhere.  If it does, I hope a reader who knows will tell us about it.  Please comment!    

‘Hay is for horses!’

Community cats (those who live outdoors, formerly known as “feral cats”) can be woeful sights, especially in cold, icy weather.  How can we make life more comfortable for them?

Think “straw”! Then go get some (see link below) for bedding and put it in the cat shelter(s) you plan to position outside.  Once you know that straw traps heat and repels moisture, what else do you need to know?  

As for the shelter itself, I’ve seen wooden ones and heard of using big Styrofoam boxes (lidded, of course), firmly positioned in sheltered spots – shelter the shelter! -- with as entrance hole cut into one side.

Voila: cozy cats!  

https://tinyurl.com/3fcnpd5e

 

                            They're after leaves but capable of pulling down branches                PAWS image

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