Recently I took a guided tour of the Zürich Zoo, and I had the chance to ask one of the zoo keepers why these elephants were sticking their trunks in strange places, as this one is here:
He told me that to keep the elephants happy, they hide individual peanuts in strange places, so the elephants will look for them.
WAIT! STOP! (This is exactly how I reacted when he told me this.) How can it be that a five thousand pound animal will spend hours looking for a little peanut? That’s like me spending hours looking for a single M&M. Sadly, the zoo keeper could not answer my question; he said he did not know.
On that day, I don’t know if I lost respect for elephants (because they are more stupid than I thought) or gained respect for elephants (finding happiness in very simple pleasures). Anyway, it reminds me of a blog that my mother recently wrote, entitled The Zen of Polished Chrome.