Saturday, June 09, 2007

A tragic loss




Friday morning Zookeepers at the Woodland Park Zoo found that Hansa the 6 year old Asian elephant had died in her sleep. Her death came as a huge shock to everyone at the Zoo.

It was particularily shocking to me as Sophie and I were at the Zoo on Monday afternoon just four days before her death. Above are a few of the photo's I took of her that day. I don't go to the elephant habitat very often anymore as it is a bit off the beaten path but Sophie was adament about seeing the elephants that day. Hansa was out playing with her ball, dipping her trunk in the pond and spraying water. We spent around 15 to 20 minutes watching her play and eat. She appeared to be very healthy. The Zoo had reported she had showed signs of being ill but was on her way to a full recovery.


It was obvious the impact had in the Seattle community that night I photographed a wedding and the bride on her wedding day brought up Hansa and commented on how sad it was. I heard many people talking about it. It was the front page story for the Seattle Times. Many people were impacted by her death and she will be missed.




I'll post happier news tomorrow...the awesome wedding I shot, the car crash I had in the middle of it all (OK, that part isn't so happy), Sophie's 15 minutes of fame and anything else I can think of.


Take care,


Mat

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Hey Mat

Just catching up on your blog this fine Tuesday and I’m thinking to myself, it's not fair you have so much talent! So anyway that’s the way life goes, sweet pictures mat! Ouch on the car!!!

Take care
Bob and Olivia