BALTIMORE — The art scene in Baltimore is top-notch, from breathtaking murals to world-renowned museums. It’s an art lover’s dream.
But it’s not just humans creating art masterpieces. At the Maryland Zoo in Baltimore, the animals are getting in on the fun. It’s called Artwork by Animals.
“Painting, for humans, is, of course, a hobby and an artistic pursuit. For the animals, it’s an extension of what we already teach them, what we already work with them on a daily basis,”
said Mike McClure, the general curator of the Maryland Zoo in Baltimore.
Elephants, rhinoceros, giraffes—even penguins create paintings using carefully thought out movements that stimulate their brains and help train them to participate in their healthcare.
“It’s our goal to have these animals and voluntarily participate in their care, and that requires us to do things like get weights on them, check their health status,” McClure said. “It requires us to be able to check pads on the bottom of feet. It requires us to be able to clean body parts and care for skin and things like that on a regular basis.”
The movement an elephant uses to step on a canvas to make a print is the same movement they use on a radiograph for x-rays.
The prints are then sold with 100% of proceeds going toward animal care, education programs, and wildlife conservation for endangered and threatened species.
“There is so much more to these animals than what you might pick up on the Internet,” McClure said. “For me, a good zoo, that’s our purpose. We’ve been able to, in a very short time, go ahead and connect you to these animals in a way that you wouldn’t have gotten otherwise.”