Elephant Headlines

The Audubon Zoo in New Orleans is gradually recovering from the Katrina hit. There were surprisingly few casualties among the animals, but some of them seem to miss the crowds. The zoo won't be open to visitors until sometime around Thanksgiving, and the apes are skittish and suspicious due to the lack of human visitors. Panya and Jean, the zoo's elephants, have been helping out by eating downed branches and, apparently, putting on impromptu shows for National Guard troops stationed nearby.

Researchers in Kenya and South Africa are strapping cellphones to elephants in order to track their migrations. This has cut the cost of wildlife tracking by as much as 60%.

Do elephants enjoy polo? None of them were quoted for this story.

A call for the National Zoo to release its elephants to sanctuary, due to unhealthy conditions in their habitat.

An interesting editorial on the Kenyan government's transfer of authority over Amboseli National Park; the writer casts some doubt on the idea of peaceful co-existence between the wildlife there (elephants in particular) and the Maasai and their cattle.