Tuesday's Water for Elephant 9-22-15

Copyright 2015 AJ Horton

Happy Tuesday.  Let's go on a safari!  While we're trekking we can stop by at the watering hole and watch the elephants gather and drink.  You may only see one drinking, but, you see it nonetheless.   A few fun facts you may not know about elephants are:  they get sunburned and may use sand to protect themselves; they have 22 months of pregnancy ( OMG - glad I'm not an elephant ); and they are not fond of peanuts!  I retrieved these fun facts from http://www.myfoxboston.com/story/30086655/7-fun-facts-about-elephants-in-honor-of-elephant-appreciation-day.  And, while I was looking for info on elephants today I found out that this is Elephant Appreciation Day!  Wow.  For some reason I had good timing on that.

On a sad note about elephants, please note that it is illegal to kill them for their ivory.  Today as I was educating myself on elephants, I came across an article than a beloved endangered elephant in Indonesia named Yongki, as been poisoned for his ivory.  Yongki was a 34 year old 3.3 ton Sumatran elephant who lived in the Bukit Barisan National Park.  He was found on September 18 by park employees, but today was the day they released the information on the poisoning.  His 3 meter long tusks had been sawed off.   You can find more info on this horrendous act by going to  http://www.cnn.com/2015/09/22/asia/indonesia-yongki-elephant-dead/index.html?eref=rss_latest.  Of course, this photo is not of Yongki.  I captured  this photo at the Asheboro Zoo in North Carolina.

We should appreciate elephants.  This is Elephant Appreciation Day!  They are a part of the ecosystem.  We need all of God's creatures.  Please, enjoy them and let them live.

I'm glad that I chose an elephant for my daily photo and that it just so happened that I stumbled on Elephant Appreciation Day.  Until a little while ago I did not know they had their own day!

I hope you had a great day and were appreciated.  Thank you for looking.  See you tomorrow.