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I have lived in Portland forever and watched the zoo change for the better over the years. I worked at the zoo at the time of Samudra's birth and it was so exciting to watch the baby elephant grow and interact with his mom and aunties. I watched him one day while he was playing to the side of the fence when something in the grass spooked him, he ran off and cried his little elphant cry and his mom and all the aunties were there in seconds and surrounded him trumpeting and protecting him. When they were sure he was ok they went about what they were doing and Sam went back to playing in the same spot where he got spooked. It was only a matter of minutes before he was spooked again and the same scenereo unfolded again. This time the trainers brought him away from that spot and distracted him with something else to do. It was totally awesome to witness this first hand. I love the elephants so much I even went to the zoo in Columbus Ohio to see their baby elephant born a few months after our Sam was born. Elephants are such interesting and awesome creatures... if not for zoo's we could never witness such great animals. I have a membership where all my grandkids can go to the zoo at anytime and visit the animals and I go there often to photograph them. 

posted 2 years, 3 months ago
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