We were fascinated by elephants even before we learned that they love to paint -- now we think they're the coolest animals ever.

Here's the story: many animals thrive when they have a regular job to do. That's true with Asian elephants, which were long accustomed to hauling trees for the logging industry. Due to various logging restrictions, many of these elephants were sent into early retirement and predictably declined. Conservation centers wanted to find a pastime for the elephants and hit on the idea of letting them paint. It turned out that the elephants loved it.

A win-win: the elephants are happier and funds are raised from the sale of the paintings to support the conservation centers. Here are two sources for elephant art: Novica and Elephant Art. You can watch a short sequence of an elephant painting here.