Meet Shanti: a 36-year-old female Indian elephant who is making thousands of dollars with the paintings she does in her free time.
Shanti lives in the Prague Zoo where she was introduced to painting as part of an enrichment program designed to keep animals happy and busy. With the help of her keeper, Veronika Struplova, she learned how to hold a paintbrush with her trunk. Within a week, Shanti was painting away the hours.
Now, Shanti’s paintings are being auctioned off and have already raised more than $6,000, all of which will go towards the purchase of veterinary equipment for a Sri Lankan elephant zoo.
However, Shanti was recently moved into a new enclosure and has seemingly lost interest in painting. If she doesn’t start up again, her existing prints will be rare items and worth even more than they are now! Hopefully Shanti just needs time to settle into her new surroundings before she picks up that paintbrush again.
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