Mary is an African elephant. Now she is 16 years old. She lives in the zoo. Mary has produced more than 50 drawings since last year. She has made over $2, 500 for the zoo. Zoo leaders said Mary first showed the art ability (能力) about 4 years ago. Zoo workers watched her make the marks (痕迹) in the sand with her trunk (象鼻). She rubbed out (抹去) the marks, then made the new ones. The zoo workers gave her brushes and paints. Soon Mary was drawing pictures. Newspaper reporters wrote about Mary, and then people went to buy her pictures. And in this way she made a lot of money for the zoo by drawing.
This is how Mary does the drawing. A zoo worker holds different color paints and Mary touches the colors she wants. Then the worker gives her chosen color to the brushes in her trunk and Mary begins to paint.