Follow Elephants On Twitter Now Because Why Not

Don’t delete your Twitter account in a fit of frustration just yet. Because elephants have arrived!

I feel like in my ongoing quest for the World’s Most Perfect squee, I have severely overlooked the elephant. Just look at those faces up there. OMG DO YOU NOT WANT TO KISS THEM? Try not to picture them in little Babar outfits because I’m told by official elephant experts aka people who are not insane for animals in people clothes that this is just not something they do, OK?

An organization is currently tweeting the actions of several elephants, in an effort to raise awareness about the grey giants:

An organization called Space for Giants has tagged four bull elephants in Laikipia, Kenya, and is following the creatures’ movements on Twitter using the hashtag #ElephantsLive. Evgeny, Tyson, Carlos, and Kimani have GPS collars that allow scouts to keep an eye on them and report their daily movements on Twitter. The organization has previously used GPS to visualize the roaming patterns of elephants in the same area, and they hope this project will help educate people about elephant behavior and provide insights about how these elephants travel and interact with their environments.

Tweets are written by Diane Vollmerhausen, who works for Space for Giants in the U.K. She communicates with a person in Kenya who gives her updates
on their comings and goings. Vollmerhausen said they use a 48-second delay when tweeting movements to keep the animal protected from possible poachers.

Vollmerhausen emphasized the project’s goal to raise awareness about
elephant poaching. “At present around 100 African elephants are being
killed illegally for the ivory every day,” she says. “The tweets are
factual in nature including their movement but also personal traits that
we have picked up following them over time. It’s amazing trying to put
yourself into the head of an elephant, they all have their very own
personalities!”

If you’re not ready to commit to following an elephant on Twitter just yet, don’t worry. You can always start with sharks.