one lucky elephant

Yesterday marked the last day of the Los Angeles Film Festival. “One Lucky Elephant”, a documentary, had its world premiere at the film festival. It is a story that explores the issues with keeping wild animals in capitvity but also captures the intimate relationship between man and pet. The pet elephant’s name is Flora and her keeper’s name is David Balding. Flora worked in a St. Louis circus for 16 years with David. Eventually David realized Flora didn’t enjoy being in the circus anymore. She needed to be around other elephants and live her life as an elephant, not a pet. The movie follows David and Flora for nine years while David tried to find a new home for Flora, a home where she could be happy and around other elephants. I haven’t seen the movie but the reviews have been really good. If you are interested the trailer can be watched here. The film should be slowly making its way to smaller theatres around the United States and they are also working on a DVD.

The website for the film is oneluckyelephant.com. You can also friend One Lucky Elephant on Facebook or follow on Twitter.

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the secret life of elephants review

On Sunday, I had the privilege of watching The Secret Life of Elephants special that I talked about last Friday. It was outstanding. I predicted that it would be “a story of life and survival that will increase your knowledge, understanding, and love for these beautiful animals”. It was so much more than that. The special was so real and emotional. 

I actually cried at one part. A mother elephant with two calves passed away. Her two calves were trying to wake her up, but she wouldn’t move. The youngest calf continuously nudged her and nudged her but his mother wouldn’t get up. You could tell that the calf was confused and didn’t know what to do. It was utterly heartbreaking watching the two calves work to awaken their mother, but her lifeless body didn’t make a move. 

The documentary also followed two baby elephants that had injured legs. It was painful watching these babies walk on their injured limbs. Their legs were so swollen and huge that you could tell the little ones were in complete discomfort. At one point, one of the babies tried to splash water on his limb to alleviate the pain. With each of these injured calves, the mother stayed behind to watch over her baby. This caused them to get lost from the rest of the herd and have to fend for themselves. But it showed the power of a mother’s love and how much she would sacrifice for her baby. 

There were also happy times while following the elephants. It was so cute watching the calves play and wrestle with each other. One little calf named Breeze especially liked tumbling around with her elder brother. It was amazing to see that type of sibling relationship among elephants. 

I thoroughly enjoyed this special. The commentary was great and the Save the Elephants team did a good job narrating the story of these elephants. If you have any interest in buying the DVD, you can find it at the BBC Shop. I think it would be worth every penny. 

The Secret Life of Elephants, £14.49, BBC Shop

 

first youtube video

Today, April 23rd, 2010, marks the five year anniversary of the first video upload on YouTube. To my surprise the video is about elephants! It is actually a really random video entitled “Me at the zoo” by YouTube cofounder Jawed Karim. It was filmed at the San Diego Zoo.

The guy in the video is pretty profound…

“And the cool thing about these guys is that they have really… really… really… long… um… trunks. And that’s, that’s cool.”

I think this ranks in my top ten favorite quotes.

I don’t have the ability to embed videos into my blog yet, so watch the 19 second video HERE.