Elephants

[Elephants are] the animal equivalent of a human, like the dolphins and the whales, and on the same level of intelligence, memory, caring. They’re better than us, because they don’t get corrupted with money. So they’ve got all the good points of humans, like the care, the family relationship, the compassion. Elephants will even help other species in trouble. You just have to stand back and marvel at what absolutely wonderfully intelligent and sophisticated animals they are.

They like playing with their keepers, sitting on them, and showing off for them, and making the men laugh. They’re quite extroverts. They love the audience.

The mud bath. When we open our doors to the public, and they come for just that one hour, and they love showing off in front of the visitors, and causing laughter, and spraying them with mud, and walking up and down. And then charging the kids as though they’re going to---and then, when everyone screams and runs away, they love that. You can literally see them smiling. And then they lie down in front of the children, just to show that they are playing. But they like the reaction of the people, and particularly laughter. They seem to know when humans are happy.
-Dame Daphne Sheldrick