Elephants at the Zoo: Playing in The Mud to Cool Off

It's August. It's hot. It's sticky. So, what's a pair of young elephants to do? Well, if you're at the Oregon Zoo's newly opened Elephant Lands, the answer is clear - mud bath!

Eight-year-old Samudra and his three-year-old sister, Lily, spent much of the afternoon rolling, soaking, and splashing in a mud wallow and wading pool, say zoo officials.

“They have a lot of fun splashing around out there,” said Shawn Finnell, the zoo’s senior elephant keeper. “But mud baths can serve an important purpose too. On a warm day like today, they cool the elephants off and provide a protective coating to help prevent sunburn. A lot of people don’t realize it, but elephants can get sunburned just like us — the mud and dirt act as their sunscreen.”