TAMPA, Fla. — Mpumi is in every way a teenager, a big personality with big energy to match.
The 13-year-old also happens to be an African elephant at ZooTampa at Lowry Park, a superstar pachyderm ready to meet her adoring fans.
Mpumi is one of the stars of ZooTampa's "Painting with Elephants" animal experience series, which relaunches this month and next, a chance for guests to see enrichment and caretaking up close, rare behind-the-scenes access.
Yes, painting with elephants is a lot of fun — for humans and animals alike.
Plus you get to keep your artwork, a savannah sunset or sunrise you'll paint before letting Mpumi and her friends add the finishing touch.
Elephants will use a modified medical device — a blowing mechanism that can monitor their health — in this case filled with white paint.
Training them to blow through this device is necessary — the paint, which will look like stars on your artwork, adds a fun element to their training.
The add-on experience, for ages 5 and up, is $100 for zoo members, $140 for non-members.
For more on painting with elephants, go here.
To follow Sean Daly's hijinks on Instagram, go here.
Share Your Story with Sean
Sean Daly calls himself Tampa Bay 28’s resident big kid. He puts his boundless energy into sharing stories about people doing good, things for you to do, and of course, theme parks. If you have an idea for Sean’s next adventure, send him a message.
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