After a month of sharing space, Ellen’s not buying into this threesome thing at the Little Rock Zoo. This according to a June 30 article by L. Lamor Williams in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. In fact, the paper that morning greeted me with a hat trick of rare fauna stories. That’s fauna, of flora and fauna, the two main units of our biota. OK, it’s a fancy word for animals.
Little Rock zookeepers are worried because Ellen is not bonding with Zina and Jewell. The latter two are the most recent zoo additions, brought in largely because of the death of Mary, Ellen’s roommate of 10 years. Ellen, Zina and Jewell (as well as Mary, of course) are pachyderms. That’s a fancy word for elephants. Mary and Ellen became friendly with each other within three days of Mary’s arrival in 2001. Ellen had been the only elephant at the zoo for 20 years before that.
Zina and Jewell, who’ve been companions for several years, have different biorhythms than Ellen. Ellen is “a fastidious eater who does not like to make a mess.” Zina and Jewell “like to play with their food.” (For us Type-A’s, that explains a lot!)
Meanwhile, the news out of Greenville, Tex., was that thousands of people were pouring in to see a white buffalo that was born, during a thunderstorm no less, at the Lakota Ranch.
White buffalo are a rarity. Some said this one was only the third of its kind ever born, but AP writer Linda Stewart Ball stressed that this could not be confirmed. According to Wikipedia, the National Bison Association estimates that a white buffalo is born in one out of every 10 million births. In many Native American traditions, though, white buffalo are considered sacred signs. Ball wrote that, according to literature distributed at the entrance to a christening ceremony, a white buffalo is an omen of hard times to come “unless people change their ways.” Well, isn’t that specific?!
And last but not least, from New York’s JKF Airport, we had news that morning that on June 29, a herd of diamondback terrapins caused delays for some travelers.
According to a variety of articles, including one titled “Get the shell out of the way,” some 200 of these tiny amphibians marched from Jamiaca Bay onto a runway in search of a sandy spot to lay their eggs. At least one plane, a Boeing 737 headed to Ft. Lauderdale, was delayed trice by these confused turtles. Perhaps they took a wrong turn at the Delta terminal.
NOTE: A few days after the above was written, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reported on its front page that Ellen the elephant, at the age of 60, went into distress, layed down on her side and died, two months to the day after the death of her friend and companion, Mary. While the initial medical thoughts centered around stroke, I prefer to think of it as a cardiac event: Ellen died of a broken heart.
Vic Fleming is a district court judge in Little Rock, Ark., where he also teaches at the William H. Bowen School of Law. Contact him at vicfleming@att.net.