Elephants Painting Pictures

Ruby was born in a logging camp in Thailand in 1973. Seven months later she was brought to the US and sent to the Phoenix Zoo. Ruby was an elephant in case you're wondering. She liked to doodle in the sand with a stick so a zoo keeper suggested teaching Ruby how to paint. Ruby loved painting. Almost overnight, Ruby and her paintings became famous. People came from all over the world to see the painting elephant. When Ruby was 24, she became pregnant but towards the end of the 22-month pregnancy, surgery revealed the baby was dead. Ruby's health was bad and despite the best efforts to save her, the painting elephant died.

In March of 2002, two elephants in India were given the chance to become artists. The elephants took painting lessons and were then given long brushes to paint a large canvas for tourists at an Indian hotel. 16 of the best artists were hired to add finishing touches to the 15 by eight foot (4.6 by 2.4 meters) canvas. The large canvas can be seen at Jaipur's Hotel Clarks Amer. Mohammed Shafi, who trained the elephants, said the elephants are "very sensible" and were trained to paint every day for two hours. Their paintings are going to be auctioned off and the money used to help Jiapur's elephants.

India isn't the only country with painting elephants. After Thailand banned logging, elephants were out of work. Two Russian artists, Vitaly Komar and Alexander Melamid, heard about Ruby and came up with the idea of opening up an art school for elephants in Thailand. Vitaly and Alexander traveled to Thailand in 1998 with their plan. They created the first art school at the Thai Elephant Conservation in Lampang. Both tourists and locals loved the idea. Paintings by the elephants became famous and started bringing in money which goes directly towards helping the elephants. Since then, two more schools have opened.

Have you seen an elephant paint? Do you know any animals with amazing skills? We'd love to hear about it, so drop us a line.

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