Sunday, January 2, 2011

Playful Elephant

Enjoying his winter playground, the zoo elephant who likes to make snowballs with his trunk - and then eat them

By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 9:25 PM on 27th December 2010headerlinks]
The elephants got a taste of a German winter at the Berlin Zoo this week as they played in the snow, getting into play fights and sampling a bit of the frozen treat.

Ko Raya, an Asian elephant, even rolled around in the snow in her enclosure at Zoologischer Garten, where temperatures have been staying below zero.


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Asian elephant Ko Raya played in the snow, coating herself in the white stuff


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An elephant lifts a snowball it made with its trunk at the Berlin zoo on Monday


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Unfortunately, if the elephant was trying to get clean, the snow will be less effective than throwing water on himself

And hopefully she liked it, as even more snow has been predicted in the German capital. Germany got 12 inches of snow on Christmas night alone.

Asian elephants in the wild don't often see snow, as they are found primarily in countries like Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka, parts of Nepal and Malaysia, Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia.

But, Ko Raya has never known a different climate, as she was born at the Berlin zoo in March 2009.

Even in the frigid weather, she bring a touch of sunshine as she is named after an island in Thailand.


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The elephant then threw the snowball with its trunk



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DELICIOUS! An elephant slips a snowball into his mouth as forecasters predicted even more snow in the German capital


Snow fight! These three pictures, taken in sequence, show the Berlin elephants throwing snow on one another