Painting elephant pays for enclosure

An elephant artist who paints with her trunk is to pay for her own new zoo enclosure after her creations took the art market by storm.

Works by Shanti - a 36-year-old Indian elephant in Prague Zoo, Czech Republic - go for up to £1,500 each which profits going to a new 1,400 square metre enclosure for her and her herd.

"Each painting takes her about 20 minutes and luckily she doesn't tire of doing them because there is always a snack at the end of one and she's always hungry," said zoo director Pavel Bobek.

Sahnti - a retired circus performer and movie star - began painting two years ago as part of an experiment into elephant intelligence.

"She destroyed quite a lot of easels and canvases in the early days but she now has a very light touch," said her keeper Veronika Struplova.