"So..she's snacking?"

When is a job more than just a job? In my experience it's when you have to go home afterwards and do some research on the Internet about something you've never heard of or seen before.

The date is unimportant. The tour group that day was two cartloads of senior women from an assisted living facility. That's not important either except that I'm grateful for the way they reacted to what we saw. We could have just as easily had a rowdy group of grade school children or some nasty teens.

Perhaps this would be a good time to see the video if you haven't already skipped ahead. This is a very short video accompanied by music; my second effort. Enjoy, please, but not at mealtime.
Click here when ready.

I'm so glad I had my video camera with me that day. And in a way I'm glad the elephant wasn't satisfied with his first trip up the bum because I caught the second one on tape. We were all still stunned from the first time. It was a very awkward moment and will occupy a high position on my list of docentia experiences. During the second helping (the one caught on tape) the only background noise is someone asking, "So she's snacking, is that what's happening?"

Up until then, the only time I'd ever witnessed this before was one very cold winter morning many years ago. My grandmother's next door neighbors' German Shepherds were outside running around in the snow. Then one of them stopped and dropped a hot, steaming dump and to my utter amazement, the other one came over and ate it. I don't think anybody believed my story, with the exception of a psychologist or two.

Back to the day of the video, after getting home from the zoo I went online and started looking into it. I discovered that it has a name: coprophagia. And although disgusting, it's not terribly uncommon. I haven't done enough research to write a paper on the subject. I haven't even done enough research to write an article for our zoo newsletter even though I'd love to interview some of the keepers from various zoos to see what they're doing to discourage it, if that's their strategy. Don't get the wrong idea. The elephants are NOT deprived of food or nutrients.

First Prize for the most revolting comment from among the witnesses that day goes to the guy that said his dogs eat the cat turds right out of the box which saves him from doing maintenance. Now that's just sickening.

So, enough about this. It's just one of my absolute best captures on video but highly unlikely to win any money from America's Funniest Home Videos. World, it's all yours. Enjoy.