... because how could you not with a picture this cute? Elephant with a pumpkin! Ha! The Oakland Zoo held its annual Thanksgiving Leftover Pumpkin feeding for the animals in residence yesterday. We can never get streaming videos to work on our computer but we're sure the video is tons of fun, in a Hang In There Baby kind of way). The camels chomped on through the gourds, the elephants stomped on them, and the tigers rolled them around and tried to eat them whole. Awwwwwww.

In sadder elephant news across the bay, Tinkerbelle, a 38-year-old Asian elephant from the SF Zoo, was moved from San Francisco to a well-regarded but unaccredited animal sanctuary for abused circus animals in the Sierra foothills. Tinkerbelle was sent away after public outcry (and a Board of Supes resolution) about whether the SF Zoo was able to handle caring for elephants after two elephants died within about a month of each other. (It probably didn't help that the first elephant died because Tinkerbelle pushed her over.) The last remaining elephant, Lulu, will be moved in a few weeks.

The SF Zoo is now in trouble with the zoo accreditation board, which objects to the zoo sending Tinkerbelle to what sounds like elephant juvie hall instead of another accredited zoo, and the SF Zoo may lose its accreditation as a result. That would mean the SF Zoo would be unable to borrow or loan its animals to other accredited zoos. Zookeepers (and Matt Gonzalez and animal rights groups) maintain that Tinkerbelle and Lulu's needs are better suited at the animal sanctuary than at another zoo because they need companionship. Why couldn't they go to the Oakland Zoo? That elephant with the pumpkin looks like a good friend!