Maude & Mary

I just have to say that it is super cool to have animal friends! My friend DeAnna works at Animal Kingdom with their African elephants. One of the girls she works with, Erin, used to work with Central FL Zoo's two Asian elephants, Maude and Mary, and she took DeAnna and I there to hang out with them the other day. It was so much fun!

I actually rode on top of Maude back in 1986, so it was really cool to meet her. She seems so huge in that picture, but her keepers were actually amazed at how "tiny" she was back then. She now tops the scales at over 10, 000 pounds! She's one big momma! Mary, their other elephant, is a bit smaller (I think they said she was around 7,000 pounds) and is the 2nd oldest Asian elephant in any AZA facility in the U.S. - she's 62 years old!

While we were there, we fed them tons of crackers (kind of like giant sized saltines). They of course can take them with their trunks, but Maude will actually let you put them in her mouth, which was pretty darn cool! I was amazed at how gigantic and gentle they both were, and I couldn't stop touching their trunks - it was just too cool. Our largest dolphin at Discovery Cove, Capricorn, weighs around 650 pounds and he seems so big to me - it's hard to think about Maude being more than 15X that and being able to just hang out next to her.

It was such a cool experience. Thank you so much Erin, and I promise I'll bring you to DC to meet a dolphin when you come down to FL!

Maude & Mary Pics