{"id":20613,"date":"2025-06-28T02:02:08","date_gmt":"2025-06-28T02:02:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/20613\/"},"modified":"2025-06-28T02:02:08","modified_gmt":"2025-06-28T02:02:08","slug":"100-elephants-migrate-into-beverly-hills-with-a-message-of-co-existance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/20613\/","title":{"rendered":"100 \u2018elephants\u2019 migrate into Beverly Hills with a message of co-existance"},"content":{"rendered":"

Keep up with LAist.<\/p>\n

If you’re enjoying this article, you’ll love our daily newsletter, The LA Report. Each weekday, catch up on the 5 most pressing stories to start your morning in 3 minutes or less. <\/p>\n

After traveling more than 5,000 miles across the United States, the Great Elephant Migration<\/a> is ending its journey in Beverly Hills.<\/p>\n

The 100 elephant<\/a> sculptures \u2014 signifying a peaceful coexistence between animals and humans \u2014 were hauled in on pickup trucks along Santa Monica Boulevard. The last three elephants crossed a ceremonial finish line outside the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts on Friday.<\/p>\n

The project is intended to inspire others to care more for nature.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s meant to show communities in the U.S. what it’s like to live with wildlife, how to coexist with it, in a way where we are able to have a relationship, as opposed to seeing it as something distant,\u201d said Feh Tarty, chairperson of Elephant Family USA, the nonprofit behind the exhibit. \u201cWe want people to start to think of the wildlife in their own communities and have a different perspective on what is their purpose here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Creating the elephants<\/p>\n

The elephants are life-sized and made of lantana camara<\/a>, an invasive shrub that has sprouted across India\u2019s forests, pushing elephants out of their habitats. Each elephant is a replica of a real wild Indian elephant.<\/p>\n

The sculptures are a collaborative effort handmade by the artists who live alongside them in southern India.<\/p>\n

Jaishankar Raman and his wife, Lakshmi, said they have been following the elephants\u2019 journey online since their first stop in Rhode Island.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it’s incredible to learn that there are so many complexities of elephants and how they live with humans,\u201d Jaishankar Raman said. \u201cThis project kind of brings together the difficulties, but also what can be done to make positive change.\u201d<\/p>\n

The two are looking forward to walking down Santa Monica Boulevard to appreciate the sculptures.<\/p>\n

\"Two<\/p>\n

The figures are made of an invasive plant that has pushed Indian elephants out of their habitats.<\/p>\n

Some visitors joined in on the celebration to cheer on their artist friends. Ruth Mathieu said she and her family were there to see the artistry and support one of the blanket designers.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust being here, you see all the beautiful colors, people from different nationalities here wearing their native clothes, and the elephants are just so beautiful,\u201d Mathieu said. \u201cThe main word that comes to mind is \u2014 unity.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nicole King came to L.A. from New York to see one of her blanket designs grace an elephant sculpture.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt actually speaks to, I think, what we’d like the United States to be about right now, which is basically history of everyone’s history,\u201d King said. \u201cIt\u2019s a celebration of all these artisans coming together as one community.<\/p>\n

The elephants are for sale from $8,000 to $22,000. Proceeds go to projects that protect biodiversity and support the co-existence of humans and animals.<\/p>\n

\"An<\/p>\n

The figures traveled a circuitous 5,000-mile route to get to Beverly Hills from Rhode Island.<\/p>\n

Check it out<\/p>\n

Curious about the sculptures? See them for yourself starting July 1. The exhibition will take up four blocks of Beverly Gardens Park<\/a> in Beverly Hills through Aug. 1.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can try to imagine it all you want \u2026 but until you see it, it’s gonna pull something out of you that you wouldn’t believe you’ve experienced,\u201d Tarty said. \u201cYou just have to see it and have that visual experience. That’s what these sculptures do for people.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

See you in Beverly Hills.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Keep up with LAist. If you’re enjoying this article, you’ll love our daily newsletter, The LA Report. Each…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":20614,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5123],"tags":[1119,1582,276,19133,19134,2961,224,5337],"class_list":{"0":"post-20613","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-beverly-hills","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-california","11":"tag-elephant-sculptures","12":"tag-great-elephant-migration","13":"tag-la","14":"tag-los-angeles","15":"tag-losangeles"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114758532793488920","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20613","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20613"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20613\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20614"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20613"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20613"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20613"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}