Elephant Sneers at Treadmill

Okay, the obsession with fitness has officially gone too far.

it's the trainers at the Alaska Zoo who are breaking a sweat trying to coax Maggie the elephant onto the world's first treadmill for a pachyderm.

Despite months of training using treats to entice the elephant to work out, the sometimes cantankerous African elephant is not much interested in using her treadmill to go for a brisk morning walk, or for that matter an afternoon or evening walk.

This should remove any doubt that elephants are among the most intelligent of all mammals, with a brain that is as convoluted as ours is (indicating its expansion beyond cranial capacity has caused it to fold in on itself) and four times the size.

Reminds me of one of my favorite short stories, by the brilliant William Kotzwinkle, Elephant Bangs Train.