Coved-19 Happy And Sad Again: Animal Edition

Desperate monkeys look for food in Lopburi, Thailand. Tourists would
always feed them, but now they're gone, chased home by the
coronavirus. Locals have been trying to help by leaving food out
for at least some of them. 

From what I've read, most animals don't get the coronavirus that is alarming everybody around the world right now.

That doesn't mean the disease has no effect on them. After all, anything that happens to humans can affect animals.

I have two of no doubt zillions of examples in this post.

First, the sad.

One of the charms of Lopburi, Thailand is the thousands of monkeys that roam the streets and buildings and temples in the region.

It turns out the monkeys' main supply of food is tourists, who kindly give them treats as they visit. The coronavirus has dried up tourism everywhere, including Thailand.

Now, the monkeys are incredibly hungry. They're viciously fighting each other over food, and running around in gangs through town, frightening people.

Locals have begun leaving food out for the monkeys to help get them through this crisis.

Now the (relatively) happy:

Wellington the penguin checks out the fish tanks at the Shedd Aquarium
in Chicago. The aquarium is closed to the human public due to the
coronavirus, so animals living there were given tours. 

The Shedd Aquarium in Chicago, like so many other attractions is closed to the public while we try to whether the coronavirus pandemic.

Well, somebody's got to tour the place, so why not let the penguins there have a look-see, since humans aren't currently in the way.  I'm very partial to penguins, by the way, so this is my kind of story.

"Without guests in the building, caretakers are getting creative in how they provide enrichment to animals.....introducing new experiences, activities, foods and more to keep them active, encourage them to explore, problem-solve and express natural behaviors," aquarium officials told the Chicago Tribune. 

One penguin, named Wellington, seemed particularly fascinated by the fish.

We all need distractions like this to get us through what I'm calling the plague weeks.

Here's a clip from CBS News about the penguims:

Baby Elephant Makes Me Want This Man's Job

Dan Daeng was trying to paint a fence.
Khunsuk the baby elephant would have
none of it. It was time to play!

At the Mae-Sa Elephant Camp in Chiang Mai, Thailand, keeper Dan Daeng, 20, was trying to be productive. He was hard at work trying to get a fence painted.

Khunsuk would have none of it. Khunsuk is a one year old baby elephant who thinks all work and no play makes Dan a dull boy.   

So, Khunsuk tried to put a stop to Dan's work. He tried slapping Dan with his trunk to get him to play. He tried tapping on his leg. Dan ignored Khunsuk. There was work to do! But Khunsuk said, no, and ruffled Dan's hair.

It was all over. Fence painting was done. Time to play. The resulting video, below, makes me really wish I had Dan Daeng's job.

Or, at least I could hav Khunsuk the baby elephant over to my house for awhile so we could play in the yard.

Watch:

Another Touching, Awesome Ad from Thailand Of All Places

Will these two young men bully or help the protagonist
in a compelling life insurance ad for Thailand?  

For some reason, advertisers in Thailand know how to pull heartstrings and pull off a great advertisement.

In this one, for a life insurnance company, we follow the story of a young man, who, on the surface, isn't the greatest guitar player and performer in the world.

But the backstory pulls you in, and it's beautiful.

Thai Life Insurance has put out a series of these well made, tearjerky ads for several  years now, according to AdWeek. 

Here's the ad that manages to tell a compelling story, for once:

Random Ducks In A Stampede, Just For Fun

Today, we offer you this YouTube video of a unique stampede.

A duck stampede in Thailand.  

The stampede inspired this week's best newspaper headline, from the Bangkok Post: "Ducks In "Mass Revolt" in Nakhon Pathom."

The Post said a farmer was herding the ducks to another area to find more food.

The International Times Tribune said the stampede tied up traffic on a rural road about 150 miles from Bangkok, Thailand.