Elephant Encounter offers learning, fun
By Kelly Dame Midland Daily News
Posted: Thursday, August 11, 2011
Cora and Shannon the elephants will be helping to teach Midland County Fair goers all about elephants at the “Elephant Encounter” show.
“The educational part is the highlight of the show,” said Bill Morris, a third-generation elephant trainer. The lessons include the differences in African and Asian pachyderms — Shannon is a 26-year-old African elephant, and Cora is a 50-year-old Asian elephant.
Morris said the chance to learn something about the animals is something parents frequently comment to him about, saying it’s easier for their kids to learn in person than from a book.
Cora and Shannon the elephants will be helping to teach Midland County Fair goers all about elephants at the “Elephant Encounter” show.
“The educational part is the highlight of the show,” said Bill Morris, a third-generation elephant trainer. The lessons include the differences in African and Asian pachyderms — Shannon is a 26-year-old African elephant, and Cora is a 50-year-old Asian elephant.
Morris said the chance to learn something about the animals is something parents frequently comment to him about, saying it’s easier for their kids to learn in person than from a book.
Elephant Encounter offers learning, fun
The show is also fun for both the audience and the animals.
“You can tell it in her eyes that she really likes the appreciation from the crowd,” he said of Cora.
Morris has spent his life around elephants, including Cora, learning about their personalities and bonding with them. His father owned 19 elephants, and his grandfather owned seven.
“That’s why we can do a show like we do,” Morris said. “We have a rapport with them.” Photographs at the show’s website, www.elephantencounter.com, shows photos of a 2-year-old Shannon, another of Morris teaching her how to smile elephant-style, and pictures of Cora as she worked on the set of “Smokey and the Bandit 2,” a movie released in 1980. There also are videos of the elephants at home in Florida.
Owning and working with the elephants is a lifetime commitment, since they can live to be 80 years old or more, Morris said.
There will be three shows daily during the fair.
• According to the Guinness Book of Records, the biggest elephant ever recorded was a male African elephant from Angola that weighted 24,000 pounds. It is mounted at the Smithsonian Institute’s Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C.
• Although elephants do have good memories, they forget once in a while. Possessing a good memory helps elephants survive in the wild. It enables them to find food and water during times of drought and avoid danger when necessary.
• Technically, elephants are incapable of running. However they can walk very fast, and have been clocked at 18 to 20 mph.
• An elephant’s trunk is made of many different types of tissue, but contains no bone. The number of muscles within the trunk is estimated to be as high as 100,000.
• Elephants are not afraid of mice. If an elephant were to encounter a mouse, it would likely ignore it. If an elephant was bored, it might try to crush a mouse with it’s foot!
Elephant Encounter offers learning, fun
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