The Naked Mammoths of the Oregon Zoo

One of the most persistent questions that visitors ask zoo professionals is, what happens to the animals in the winter?  I feel like that's an especially good question this year, with all of the crazy ups and downs in temperatures we've experienced.  The Oregon Zoo has just released this little video showing how their Asian elephants have been handling the cold this year. 

I love watching elephants in the snow (provided that they have the option to be inside and warm, as Oregon Zoo's elephants do).   I feel like - if you squint a little and use some imagination - it offers our best glimpse in what it must have been like thousands of years ago, when early man shared the tundra and the taiga with woolly mammoths.