Monday, August 5, 2013

Elephants really never forget

This is pretty amazing.



The younger elephant, Jenny, was "mothered" by the older Shirley at a circus where they both performed.  After a year, they were split up, with Jenny sold to a different circus.  7 years later, they were reunited at The Elephant Sanctuary:
Jenny came into the barn for the first time since Shirley's arrival at around 7:00 p.m. There was an immediate urgency in Jenny's behavior. She wanted to get close to Shirley who was divided by two stalls. Once Shirley was allowed into the adjacent stall the interaction between her and Jenny became quite intense. Jenny wanted to get into the stall with Shirley desperately.She became agitated, banging on the gate and trying to climb through and over.

After several minutes of touching and exploring each other, Shirley started to ROAR and I mean ROAR—Jenny joined in immediately. The interaction was dramatic, to say the least, with both elephants trying to climb in with each other and frantically touching each other through the bars. I have never experienced anything even close to this depth of emotion