Creative critters

Finding a creative outlet for Lucky the elephant seems to have been a win-win for everyone.

Lucky, one of two African elephants at the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo, regularly puts paint to canvas - and apparently enjoys it, as evidenced by the loud, gravelly purring she often emits while painting. The zoo benefits by selling the artwork. And keepers and zoogoers don't risk getting rocks and feces tossed at them by a restless elephant.

It was such behavior that led keepers to teach Lucky to paint about 10 years ago. Since then, Lucky's masterpieces have been displayed in galleries, the Colorado Springs Airport and the Springs City Council chambers. On Tuesday, Lucky's work will get an international stage, with one of her pieces up for bid in an online Art by Animals auction held by the Association of Zoos & Aquariums and the Auction Network. Artwork by a wide range of creative critters will be auctioned, including chimps, penguins, meerkats, sea lions and the Pueblo Zoo's new artistic discovery, Ziggy the porcupine.

The animals paint using everything from paws and claws to tails and scales. Some walk or waddle across the canvas. Lucky wields a brush in her trunk, which with more than 100,000 muscles is capable of delicate work. She "signs" each work with a trunk print.

Painting is just one enrichment activity aimed at stimulating the 4-ton Lucky mentally and physically, says Jason Bredahl, elephant manager at the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo.

"We've kind of seen her attitude and behavior change over the years, and one thing that has helped us with that is increasing some of her training programs," he said. "That training gives her something else to think about and participate in, and not focus on some of those behaviors we don't want to see in her."

Lucky has two assistants when painting - one keeper holds the canvas, acting as a human easel, and another assists her with the brush and paint. She typically paints two to four times a month, both as part of her enrichment schedule and for special showings paid for by zoogoers.

"We like to keep it fun and novel," Bredahl said, adding that he can't remember a time when Lucky didn't want to paint.

"If we tried to do it every other day, she might get to the point where it's just not fun anymore."

Bredahl, while quick to say he's no art expert, says he has seen Lucky's style evolve over the years.

"You can see more delicate brush strokes early on," he said. These days, Lucky's brush work is a bit more rapid-fire. Her work remains abstract - don't expect, for example, to order a self-portrait.

Lucky typically takes 10 to 15 minutes to complete a work. She gets a little human assistance in determining when she's finished, Bredahl acknowledged.

"We come to, maybe, a mutual agreement that we stop before it ends up being one solid color."

Lucky was born in 1980 and has been at the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo since 1981, after being orphaned in Kruger National Park in South Africa. The zoo's other female African elephant, Kimba, provides watercolor footprints with the help of keepers, but doesn't seem to share Lucky's artistic tendencies, Bredahl said.

"Kimba's just a different personality and not motivated to use her trunk that way," he said.

The money Lucky has raised for the zoo - about $7,200 just in the past five years - isn't peanuts. Other zoos also have discovered that animal artwork sells, as reflected by Tuesday's auction. But the artistic endeavors are about giving the animals something to do, not making big bucks, says Jackie Marks, a spokeswoman for the Silver Spring, Md.-based Association of Zoos & Aquariums.

"It turns out a lot of our members are doing this as part of enrichment, and as a nice side effect, they're also fundraising for their zoos and aquariums," she said. "Many members have been doing this for some time, but it's just now coming into the limelight."

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CONTACT THE WRITER: 636-0272 or bill.radford@gazette.com.