5 Asian Elephants

We went to the zoo today. I worked in the morning, while it was raining, but when the showers moved out and then so did I. First we enjoyed a Vietnamese luncheon at Mai Lee and then it was off to the zoo. One of the docents there told us a good story that I’ll share with you here.

Years ago, August Busch III, then president of Anheuser-Busch, donated $30,000 to the Saint Louis Zoo so that the zoo could acquire Asian Elephants. Now a days, thirty-grand wouldn’t be enough money to buy even one elephant, let alone the eight that the zoo purchased then. The zoo only had room for five elephants, so it gave the other three elephants away to other zoos. After the elephants had arrived, Busch asked the zoo if he could name the elephants. The zoo said yes, a practice that it no longer allows, because Busch named them for his five sisters, who were not pleased.

Those five elephants have all died by now, but the sisters haven’t and they are still not very happy with that joke. The pictured five elephants are all family members. They are all female relatives, sisters, mothers, daughters, aunts, nieces and cousins. The two dark-colored elephants are wet, having just climbed out of the water, while the light-colored elephants are mostly dry.