The Smithsonian National Zoo has recently upgraded their elephant cam, which means that you can watch all six of the zoo’s Asian elephants from the comfort of your couch. The majestic animals will now be tracked on multiple high-definition cameras run by Friends of the National Zoo volunteers.
The new camera system is replacing the stationary camera that only showed the elephants on screen when they happened to wander into its field of vision. Now, the manually-operated cameras will follow the animals whether they’re inside the Elephant Community Center or hanging out in the yard.
The cameras will only move during business hours—the zoo hopes to to build up to having volunteer-run cameras every day from 9 AM to 5 PM—and the zoo plans to leave the cameras running, but stationary, during the off-hours. The Asian elephants can currently be seen in HD through the live video feed on the National Zoo’s website.
Caroline Cunningham joined Washingtonian in 2014 after moving to the DC area from Cincinnati, where she interned and freelanced for Cincinnati Magazine and worked in content marketing. She currently resides in College Park.
