Baby Elephants

The Biology Regents was today. Because I proctored* it for three hours and then subsequently spent five hours grading it with my colleagues, I need to decompress. I turn not to booze or recreational substances (well, aside from this black and white cookie I'm about to make disappear) or anti-gravity pills to make me forget. I turn not to wild outlandish behavior to distract me from my troubles. No. I turn to baby elephants.

 

I love this baby.  I love how she seems to think that everything around her is just so freakin' awesome.  I also love how they're totally doing Elephant tai chi at about the one minute mark.



The baby in the following video sneezes (god, so cute) and freaks out, but it's hard to tell if it's the sneeze that scares it or the obnoxious laughter from the tourists recording the video that freaks it out.



Plus, um, did you see how the mom looked at the camera?  Did we ever hear the adage about elephants and how they don't forget?  She is gonna remember that crap, laughing tourist jerks, and she's gonna hunt you down.  When you're 80.**

This video is a baby elephant getting a bath in a kiddie pool.  There are no words.


I mean, he's just so overcome with joy that he has to run out for a minute and take a break from it all.  And then run back in.  Also, Damn, that pool is taking a beating and not giving in.  My friend with a 4 year old could use something like this.

The next video actually scared me a bit until the end.  Spoiler: baby's ok.  But he slips in the river at one point and his mom is trying to get him out and she and all the adult elephants start trumpeting and panicking and getting really upset when it looks like she might not be able to pull him out.


I get emotional at stuff like this.

Finally, here's one more baby.  Again, no words.




 *(Did you know that there's a special circle of Hell reserved for bad teachers where you have to proctor for eternity? It's true. Dante didn't include it in The Inferno because it was TOO BORING and worse a fate than even Paolo and Francesca deserved.)

** Read Water for Elephants . No need to watch the R Patz movie.  In it, there's an elephant named Rosie (yes, I'm biased to like her already) who never forgets.  She just waits for the right moment.  This Rosie could learn a lot from that Rosie.