Update on ... elephants

A survey of recent developments in a topic of general interest

In January, a conservationist in Kenya announced a method of turning elephant dung into paper.

In March, Antwerp zoo installed solar panels to heat 2,000 litres of water a day so that their elephants, Dumbo and Dora, could have warm showers.

In May, trials of a new elephant contraceptive in Kruger National Park, South Africa, were halted because it had the side-effect of increasing the male elephants' sex urge and driving them wild.

In June, two wooden elephants were blamed for a political and financial crisis in Thailand. The supposedly jinxed elephants had been moved from temples to the finance ministry.

In June, a circus elephant fell into a canal in Stockholm and had to be hoisted out with a crane. "Elephants love the water," said the circus manager, "and sometimes things like this happen."