Scotty's First Birthday

[kristie here]

Scotty the baby elephant turns one year old on Tuesday, and we went to the Zoo in the pouring rain on Saturday to watch his first birthday celebration. They had Scotty do a few tricks, and then they actually let us see him up close in his barn.

While in the barn, we ended up standing next to Scotty's primary keeper, who told us some interesting stuff, like....

- Scotty weighed 300-some pounds when born and now weighs about 1,000 lbs
- there are only 600 elephants in the U.S.
- 300 of those are in zoos, 300 others are privately owned (circuses, etc.)
- an elephant pregnancy lasts two years
- part of Scotty's food includes whole oranges and sweet potatoes

Here are two videos of Scotty's little birthday party. In the second one, Scotty (on the far left) and the other two elephants go down on their hands and knees, get up and take a bow, and then Scotty walks around them. He's adorable!