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Mara and Rana are often known for being mature, calm elephants–but that’s not the case all the time. No matter their age, they still take the opportunity to play in the rain, cover themselves in dirt and mud, and just get plain silly when they’re in the mood. 

This video shows a moment when Mara was acting pretty spunky and Rana was more into relaxing. It doesn’t seem to matter that they both have different objectives for the afternoon; they still want to be near each other. At first, Mara seems to be almost mashing the mud with her trunk, sort of kneading it to make it softer and easier to play with. She folds her trunk up and mushes it into the mud, coating both sides evenly. She scooted from one spot to another, perhaps trying to find the mud that’s best for smushing. This went on for a good bit of time with Mara pressing mud into her face from the top of her forehead to the bottom of her nose. 

Meanwhile, Rana stays at the very edge of the pond. She shows no interest in getting wet, but does seem to want to stick next to Mara. In fact, even when she turns in the opposite direction, she still lays her tail across the back of Mara’s head–a silly gesture. After a few minutes, Mara decided she’d gotten squishy enough and opted to get out of the pond. Pretty quickly thereafter, the two headed into the trees for some shade and, most likely, some afternoon grazing. We could hear the two vocalizing to each other, so we feel pretty sure that their outing was a success for both of them.