YOUR FRIENDS' ACTIVITY

    Elephant plays tunes on harmonica at National Zoo

    By BRETT ZONGKER | Associated Press – Wed, May 2, 2012

    WASHINGTON (AP) — An elephant named Shanthi at the Smithsonian's National Zoo plays a harmonica with her trunk and appears to love doing it.

    Video released Wednesday by the zoo in Washington shows the 36-year-old Asian elephant has a harmonica attached to her stall and plays tunes even when no humans are within view.

    Elephant keeper Debbie Flinkman said Shanthi is "musically inclined," playing her own songs that always have a big crescendo at the end. Shanthi also likes to tap things, flap her ears against objects to make noise and rub her leg up and down shrubs to repeat noises.

    "It is very good enrichment, especially for this specific elephant" because she is so interested, Flinkman said. Other elephants may notice the harmonica but are less interested.

    Shanthi will play for several minutes at a time, exhaling to play a pattern, then inhaling for a different sound and moving to another end of the harmonica for a different note. Each time, she ends with a big exhale for a loud sound. After New Year's Day, she also played a plastic party horn that Flinkman brought to her for hours, blowing it as loud as she could. "It sounded like she was strangling a goose," Flinkman said.

    Handheld harmonicas have been used with the elephants for years, but the zoo only recently added an activity wall where they could permanently mount two harmonicas for Shanthi to use on her own. Flinkman said she doesn't reward Shanthi when she plays on her own. It's something she enjoys.

    Sometimes Shanthi will lower her ear to be closer to the sound.

    "I try really hard to stay out of her line of sight because I don't want her to cue off of me," Flinkman said of Shanthi's music. "It just really amuses us. And I absolutely love it that it amuses her."

    Shanthi was a gift from Sri Lanka in 1976 and is the mother of the zoo's 10-year-old calf Kandula.

    Loading...

    News for You »

    • No Wonder Republican Criticism of Obama Isn’t Working

      Henny Youngman, the late borscht belt comedian, told hundreds of politically incorrect jokes. One of them was his response when asked, “How’s your wife?” “Compared to what?” he’d say.

    • Dog Found Standing Guard Over a Tornado Victim Reunited With Her Owner

      There's a happy ending to the story of a dog, found alive in the rubble after a massive tornado devastated Moore, Oklahoma: she's been reunited with her owner.

    • Why is AT&T milking subscribers for an extra $500 million? ‘Because they can’

      AT&T said earlier this week that it will add a new administrative fee to each of its wireless subscribers’ monthly bills. The fee is only $0.61, which doesn’t sound like much, and an AT&T spokesperson was quick to point out to several news sites that this new fee is lower than similar fees charged by rival carriers. Subscribers were still outraged. Now that the shouting has died down a bit, however, people are looking for a batter explanation for the new charge they’ll see each month. According to one industry watcher, that explanation couldn’t be simpler: “Because they can.” “Why would AT&T do this? Because they can, and it is all in the pricing strategy,” Joe Hoffman, principal analyst at ABI Research

    • Wife says trucker saw bridge collapse in mirror

      MOUNT VERNON, Wash. (AP) — The wife of a Canadian trucker whose rig caused the collapse of a Washington bridge says a special vehicle called a pole car had travelled the route to make sure the load would fit.

    • iPhone's New iOS7 Design Is Flat as Hell and You Can't Stand the Wait Anymore

      After hearing a lot about the "flat" new look of iOS 7 that may or may not be revealed at Apple's World Wide Developer's conference next month, there's finally been some light shed on details of what the latest iPhone design basics might look like — and, well, things start off pretty much in the dark. ...

    • 5.7-magnitude earthquake shakes Northern Calif

      GREENVILLE, Calif. (AP) — A magnitude 5.7 earthquake was widely felt as it rattled Northern California Thursday night, breaking dishes and shaking mirrors off walls. But authorities said there were no immediate reports of injury or serious damage.

    • Visa, Mastercard ask U.S. court to declare card fees are lawful

      By Jessica Dye NEW YORK (Reuters) - Visa Inc and MasterCard Inc, opening another front in an eight-year battle over credit card fees paid by retailers, on Friday asked a federal judge to declare that the fees do not violate antitrust law. The lawsuit seeks to give the card companies legal ammunition against some retailers who are trying to opt out a proposed settlement under which they would receive a share of $7.2 billion in cash and fee discounts from the card companies. ...

    • Magnitude 5.7 quake strikes Northern California

      (Reuters) - A magnitude 5.7 earthquake struck Northern California on Thursday, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. The epicenter of the quake was 6 miles northwest of the town of Greenville, and near the smaller community of Canyondam, the USGS said. There were no immediate reports of injuries. Allen Shephard, a hunting and fishing guide at Quail Lodge at Lake Almanor in Canyondam, said the quake knocked him "right off the couch and onto the floor." The floor of the lodge was littered with broken dishware, and cabinets were in disarray, said Shephard, 62. ...

    Show More

    Follow Yahoo! News

    Loading...