Elephants who can Paint!

The morning of her first art class, Sao, a 35-year-old female Asian elephant, picks up a paintbrush with the tip of her trunk and tentatively places it in her mouth. Crouching at her feet, Theung, her mahout (trainer), gently guides her trunk back toward a blank sheet of paper laid out on the ground. "Euughhaa, euughhaa," he says, by way of encouragement. Sao swishes her tail, flaps her ears, and casually tosses the paintbrush to the ground. "Gep! gep!" ("Pick it up!"), Theung commands. Sao stretches out her trunk to retrieve the brush, and delicately touches it to the paper at her feet. She hesitates for a moment, as her breath rushes out the end of her trunk with a soft whooshing sound. Then, holding her trunk straight, she takes a tiny step backward, slowly dragging the paint-loaded brush across the surface of the paper and leaving behind a brilliant streak of cobalt blue. "Geng mark!" ("Well done!"), Theung says, smiling with satisfaction at what can only be described as a moment of artistic breakthrough. For the next several hours, Sao and Theung turn out one masterpiece after another in a focused frenzy of interspecies collaboration.

Click on title to see video and learn more! INCREDIBLE!