Volunteer Day at The Elephant Sanctuary The Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee (http://elephants.com/, Dulary's new home!) provides a great opportunity for anyone who wants to help elephants by allowing volunteers approximately once a month to help with various projects.  There is never any direct contact with elephants, but depending on the project, you may be able to see elephants from a distance. A member of Friends of Philly Zoo Elephants was fortunate enough to volunteer at The Elephant Sanctuary in May 2007.  It was one of the greatest experiences of her life.  One of the projects  was painting Flora's gate.  As shown in the photo, there were some high spots to paint, which gave us a great view of the African habitat!

Flora soon came out into her yard and was very curious about what was going on with all of these strangers near her yard.  The volunteers had a job to do and were not there to gawk at Flora, although it was hard not to stare at such a beautiful elephant.   Here Flora is raising her trunk while Tange and Zula are in the background.

The freshly painted gate!  All of the volunteers were proud of their painting prowess and were so pleased to have the opportunity to help out the wonderful elephants.

After painting, the volunteers take a break before going back to the Sanctuary office for lunch.  Flora was not particularly impressed with the volunteers, but she didn't seem to mind them too much!

Here Flora is devouring an entire log!  She seemed to eat the log in about three bites.

Flora is a gorgeous elephant.  She will flap her ears which only enhances her beauty and majesty.

The African habitat landscape is one of broken trees and torn up ground.  There is no doubt that these Africans are savannah makers!

The inside of the immaculate African barn was sweet-smelling even before the daily cleaning!  One of the volunteers was fortunate enough to help clean out the barn by power-hosing the floor and emptying the automatic waterers. O'Berry, an African elephant caregiver, told us that the elephants use the automatic waterers every day and do something interesting - first they fill up their trunks with the cooled water, and then dump it out.  Then they fill up their trunks again, but they drink that water, which has been warmed by the sun..

The African girls' afternoon snack!

Another project for May volunteer day was painting the cabins behind the office.    PLEASE READ MORE ABOUT THE ELEPHANT SANCTUARY AND HOW YOU CAN HELP HERE: http://elephants.com/canhelp.htm