Philadelphia Zoo Elephant Swimming - in October!

[animalsrule1231]

I loved the water pool. The elephants loved it, and they could drink fresh, clean water. And they could splash and play in the water together without getting hurt. Dulary loved the pool.

[ZooVisitorMM]

@animalsrule1231 I know - and after Dulary was transferred to the Elephant Sanctuary, she did not want to move away from the barn area even to go far enough to get to one of the ponds. So the staff had to dig a pond closer to the barn especially for her. Even then, she did not go in her pool right away. It was about a year after she moved to the Sanctuary before she finally took her first dip. The Elephant Sanctuary people are very caring, good people. But Dulary's home was in the Zoo.

[awesomeH2O]

I've seen the National Zoo elephants. Shanthi, the largest one, had not yet gone on that little weight loss program, and at the time, she made Dulary back in Philadelphia look small!

[PetTipsForYou]

@awesomeH2O Well yes...I have noticed that too. Shanthi once weighed almost 10,000 pounds. The National Zoo is trying to breed her, so I believe the weight loss program is mainly to make the birth easier (smaller mother, smaller baby, and therefore an easier birth).

[awesomeH2O]

I love the Sanctuary, because it is for abused and needy elephants from zoos and sanctuaries. I think that it's important to help these animals in America.

[ZooVisitorMM]

@awesomeH2O I agree that it is important to rescue abused and needy elephants (and other kinds of animals, too) and I am definitely in favor of having sanctuaries for those purposes.

But I do not believe that elephants living in zoos are abused or need to be rescued from anything. So I am opposed to sending any zoo elephant to any sanctuary.

[awesomeH2O]

Did you know that an elephant can drink as much as 50 gallons daily in the wild? Amazing!

In zoos, elephants do not exert as much energy as wild elephants, and therefore will require less water. In captivity, an elephant may drink 30-40 gallons daily. That still is a HUGE amount!

[ZooVisitorMM]

@awesomeH2O I'm not surprised. I used to love to watch the elephants drinking from the water spout and waterfall that flowed into their pool. The water was always so fresh and clean, and I always thought that must be much nicer than drinking stagnant pool water, or even river water in the wild.

[awesomeH2O]

@ZooVisitorMM Maybe...but I guess in the wild, animals drink what they can find. After all, elephants in the African Savannah need lots of water, and so it's impossible to pick and choose what water is cleaner to drink.

[awesomeH2O]

Why is the Philadelphia Zoo your favorite Zoo?

[ZooVisitorMM]

@awesomeH2O The first time I walked through the North Gate (way back in 1967), it cast a spell over me. Two years later I moved to Philadelphia because I loved the Zoo so much.

If you read my channel description, you will see that it had one of the greatest varieties of species on exhibit at any zoo.

But it was much more than that. It felt like the animals' territory, even though at that time, of course, there were still cages with bars.

The atmosphere still exists to a degree.

[awesomeH2O]

The pond is quite small....I wish the elephants had a bit more space to swim and splash.

[ZooVisitorMM]

@awesomeH2O You can't see the entire area in this video. The pond was big enough for four elephants to fit in comfortably. (You do know the elephants are no longer at the Zoo, don't you?)

There are now actually LEGO penguins sitting in the area of the pond seen in this video. (As you can probably guess, I really don't like that.)

[awesomeH2O]

@ZooVisitorMM They have lego penguins? That's quite odd.

You may be right. After all, the entire pool is not in the line of vision. It could be bigger than I thought. All four elephants could fit in the pond? I had no idea.

[ZooVisitorMM]

@awesomeH2O Yes, you can see them in my video

Philadelphia Zoo Creatures of Habitat - LEGO vs Real Penguins

I will send this video to you via private message so you don't have to search for it.

You can't imagine how much this upsets me!

[PetTipsForYou]

@awesomeH2O I agree.