I have a wildlife zoo

Chapter 456 Receiving the Elephant

After petting the animals, the Sparkling Girls gathered again, happily sharing their experiences.

Ran Qingqing said, "The ring-tailed lemurs are so fun! When feeding them, several would jump on people."

Yang Xiaochao said, "Walking with the alpacas was also quite fun. The one I walked with was called Brother Aotian, a very temperamental alpaca. It even had a standoff with a peafowl on the road. When the peafowl fanned its feathers, it sprayed the peafowl with saliva."

Everyone thought about that scene and indeed found it pretty interesting.

Shi Xi asked curiously, "Didn't you get sprayed with alpaca saliva?"

"I almost did! I had to brush its fur for a long time to get closer to it." Yang Xiaochao asked back, "How about you? How did it feel petting the snake, was it thrilling?"

"It was quite different from what I expected! Some snakes are actually pretty cute."

Yang Xiaochao's eyes widened, "Really? Weren't you terrified before you went?"

...

After the program finished shooting, everyone returned happily.

It would probably be a week before it was edited and broadcasted.

Compared to the program, Fang Ye was more concerned about two other matters recently.

One was the public interest lawsuit on the green peafowl, which would go to trial on March 20th. The other was the transport of an elephant.

Unlike other animals, such as ring-tailed lemurs or macaques that could be sent in batches, the Asiatic elephant would have to be transported one by one from different places.

The first elephant scheduled for transport was a 9-year-old female named "Pingping."

Pingping's backstory was also quite tragic. Her Asiatic elephant family once lived freely in the forests along the China-Myanmar border but was targeted by poachers intending to sell them to zoos in the country.

To control the elephants, which were difficult to domesticate, the poachers even smeared narcotics on bananas to feed them, causing the drug-addicted elephants to have to follow the poachers' orders.

Fortunately, the elephants were rescued by the Yunnan police and fostered in a wildlife rescue center in Hainan to rehabilitate. After two years, they successfully kicked the habit.

She was named "Pingping" in the hope that she would live safely and peacefully.

When Fang Ye looked into adopting the elephant, hearing that the rescue center was finding a new home for Pingping, he bought her.

Why not release her into the wild? Because after a long period of domestication and close contact with humans, elephants become accustomed to human habits. Wild animals generally keep their distance from humans, and those that have interacted with people for too long are hard to release back into the wild.

Fang Ye understood and smiled, "Ah ah ah~ ah ah ah~ Black Cat Detective!"

'Black Cat Detective' is indeed a very classic animated series!

The monkey-eating eagle stuffing a monkey into its beak with a "crunch," and the episode where a mantis devours a groom might be childhood traumas for many.

But looking back, it's quite interesting, and it shared a lot of scientific knowledge.

In the third episode "The thieves who ate red soil," the elephants, hippos, and wild boars stealing red soil seemed so implausible to the young Fang Ye, who thought they must be eating chocolate instead.

But indeed, they were eating soil, as red soil contains numerous trace elements that can replenish minerals when consumed.

An elephant close to them walked over, its long trunk crossing the water ditch and just reaching the top of the concrete wall.

It opened its mouth wide, seemingly greeting them, with two white tusks of over twenty centimeters peeking behind its trunk.

Fang Ye smiled and waved his hand, "Hello?"

Eye of Observation!

[Asiatic elephant: Pingping

Gender: Female

Age: 9 years old

Mood: Cheerful]

Many people have misconceptions about elephant tusks, thinking that those without tusks had them removed or that males have tusks and females do not.

However, with Asiatic elephants, not all individuals have visible tusks. Based on observations by scientists, 20% of male elephants don't display tusks while 20% of female elephants have visible tusks.

In short, one cannot determine the sex of an elephant solely by its tusks.

Old Yang laughed and said, "This elephant is the one you're here to take, Pingping; she's asking you for some fruit."

Fang Ye asked, "Do you have fruit? I'll feed her one."

A staff member handed him an apple!

Fang Ye took it, placing it near Pingping's trunk, and the flexibly soft flesh at the tip of the trunk picked up the apple. Her trunk curled back, bringing the apple to her mouth.