DEP Photography

I Met A Family Of Elephants At The Airport

Dancing Elephants Press prompt 28 of 52

Vidya Sury, Collecting Smiles

Published in

Dancing Elephants Press

4 min readApr 16, 2023

What can be funnier than me responding to my own prompt? Think about it and tell me in the comments!

So — my city, Bangalore has a new airport terminal — T2, meant for domestic air traffic. Last month, I made two trips to Mumbai and while I took off from the main terminal, my arrival was at T2, the new one.

As the commute bus dropped us off at the terminal, we entered to behold this massive tableau of elephants in a forest-ish setting. Massive because of life-size elephant statues, duh!

Even though it was past midnight, I couldn't help but marvel at these. I mean — larger than life. I took pictures, of course. What captured my heart were the tiny elephants! They were so cute.

I thought they were beautifully carved.

Let me share ten fun facts about elephants now. I mean, we know that elephants are the largest land animals.

They weigh 6000 kilograms on average. And oh, for perspective, the tongue of a blue whale weighs more than an entire elephant!
Elephants are highly intelligent. They have complex emotions and feelings. They are compassionate and self-aware.
They can recognize themselves in a mirror!
An elephant’s pregnancy lasts 22 months. That’s nearly two years — the longest of any mammal!
They must eat approximately 150kg of food per day (roughly around 375 tins of baked beans) although half of this may leave the body undigested.
Elephants communicate in many ways — trumpet calls, body language, touch, scent, etc. They also communicate via sounds that create vibrations on the ground which they feel in their bones.
Their trunk has around 150,000 muscle units in their trunk. Over 40,000 muscles are used for breathing, smelling, and communicating. They can pick up an average-sized horse as well as a grain of rice with that trunk!
They can suck up to 8 liters of water in their trunk to drink. They also use their trunks as a snorkel when swimming. Is that why swimwear is called swimming trunks? Hmm.
The elephant’s temporal lobe (the area of the brain associated with memory) is larger and denser than that of humans— thus the saying ‘elephants never forget’.
Elephants have an average lifespan of up to 75 years. (Bowhead whales live for 200 years!)

Source 1
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Isn’t nature wonderful? Which of these ten facts did you already know about?

I think myself fortunate to have ridden an elephant and to also have “met” elephants, fed them, and have them touch my head with their trunks. They are such gentle giants. Most temples in the south in India have a temple elephant that is worshipped and led around in a procession.

I remember, when my son was little, we would visit a temple nearby. This one had a mini zoo inside it — with deer, rabbits, peacocks, snakes, a camel, and an elephant. And because we told him all kinds of mythological stories, he would question why they didn't have a tiger and a lion (they are vehicles of some of the deities).

Anyway, even after he started school, which was nearby, we’d leave home a little early to go via the temple. Why? To see them bathing the elephant. Oh, what a joyful sight that used to be! I wish I had taken photos but I only had a basic cellphone then and never carried my point-and-shoot camera (too expensive to develop the film).

After they bathed the elephant with a hose and let him play a little, they would gently towel the elephant and then feed him large balls of rice. They would bring it in a big bucket. We’d watch, fascinated, and then I’d tear my son away from there and drop him at school. The temple no longer has these animals. Upkeep is hard.

Wonderful memories!

❤