Helpful mom

At a national park in South Africa, a baby elephant accidentally fell upside down on a bank. His mother helped him up! Who knew a mother elephant could be so helpful? Here is a picture of the mother elephant and her baby.

Photo from above-linked article in the Daily Record and Sunday Mail (UK).

Roly Poly baby

Today in the backyard, I saw a baby roly-poly for the first time! It was so small compared to an adult roly-ply and it wasn't black like the adult roly-ply either. Here's a picture of an adult roly-poly. 

Asian and African Elephants - Differences

Last week I went to the zoo and saw the new elephant exhibit, Jumbe (the black rhino), the new lion exhibit, and the new meerkat exhibits. And there I learned that Indian elephants have their ears in the shape of India, just like African elephants have their ears in the shape of Africa. I also learned that only the male Indian elephants have tusks and the females don't, unlike the African elephants because both sexes of the African elephants have tusks. I also learned that African elephants are not easy to tame but that Indian elephants are easy to tame.
Here is a great blog post comparing ears of Asian and African elephants - http://amazing-creature.blogspot.com/2011/03/elephant-facts-difference-between.html.