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Hi, I'm Norman, Norman PhartEphant. I'm an African elephant who was adopted by this US zoo. Here at the zoo I have made friends from around the world.
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Ty is a Bengal tiger, from India, with orange and black stripes. She looks fierce and is an excellent athlete. Zip is a wallaby from Australia. He has a pouch on his tummy that can carry all sorts of things.
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One day, Zip, Ty, and I were
playing catch. Ty was running
down the field to catch a ball
I had thrown when, all of a sudden,
Ty disappeared. DISAPPEARED!
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Zip and I were stunned. Where did she go?
We looked at each other,
looked where Ty had just been,
and then headed down the
field calling out,
"Ty, where are you?"
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Zip hopped down the field with
great bounces, much faster than
I could run. When he reached
the spot where we had last seen Ty,
Zip too disappeared. DISAPPEARED!
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I slowed down. Something strange was happening ahead. As I approached I could see that there was a hole in the ground. I looked in. There was Ty. There was Zip. And there was another set of small eyes looking up at me.
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"Whoa! Stop right there,
big fella. There is no more
room for you!"
shouted a gopher.
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Then he turned to my friends and said, "Since I didn't invite you into my living room, it is time for you to leave!"
My curiosity piqued, I asked, "Do you live under the ground?"
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The gopher came up to chat. "This is just one room in our town of tunnels. And yes, I live underground with my family, my cousins, and many other neighbors, including the moles, who don't dig quite as deep as gophers, and the ants, who run around almost on the surface."
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"Wow, I didn't know. I've always stayed above the ground," I said. Then, I farted. PHAT. Not too loud, but loud enough for everyone to know it was me. And... it was a stinker!
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"You, my large friend, are not built for life underground. You are a bit big for a tunnel. To live underground, you need to have digging skills, strong teeth and claws, and be comfortable in small spaces. I would not want to be your neighbor, because gas like that would stun a gopher town for days!"
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I farted again.
I shrugged and said
to the gopher, "Yeah, I fart.
I fart a lot."
Zip chimed in, saying,
"We all have talents! I hop."
Ty said, "I growl."
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The gopher said, "I whistle," then proceeded to whistle a tune for us. As he whistled, gophers started popping up all across the field.
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The gopher explained that whistling is mainly used as a signal of danger to other gophers. And that was why his neighbors were popping up: to check on him.
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We invited the gophers to play soccer with us. Although the gophers greatly outnumbered us, we were more practiced at handling the ball. Then we did ball tricks.
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The gophers could put it down one hole
and pop it out across the field.
Zip could kick the ball high in the air,
and I could change the
ball's direction with a swish
of my big ears.
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Ty made an impressive dive for the ball, catching it just before it went down a gopher hole. But the ball popped in her claws.
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Back at home, I told Alfrebit about the gopher's whistle. He told me that when I got a bit larger he would teach me how to use my trunk like a trumpet!
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I went to sleep excited
about tomorrow.
