Nice to meet you, Your Majesty! The Queen greets Donna the elephant
There are some real perks to being queen: You can get up close to an elephant.
Smiles all around the United Kingdom on Tuesday when Queen Elizabeth II and husband Prince Philip Duke of Edinburgh opened an elephant care center at an English zoo and were greeted by the outstretched trunk of 7-year-old Donna the pachyderm.
Both of the nonagenarians (she will be 91 later this month; he is 95) seemed delighted, feeding Donna unpeeled bananas as the royal photographers snapped.
The queen also got to meet a 10-month-old baby elephant named Elizabeth after her to celebrate her 90th birthday last year.
It was another in the always busy schedule of engagements the queen and the duke continue to keep despite their age and after 65 years of carrying out such engagements. This one was at the ZSL Whipsnade Zoo in Dunstable, 30 milesnorthwest of London.
She was dressed in her standard queen outfit: Pearls and a lilac coat-and-dress, plus matching hat with a huge cabbage rose decoration.
The royal couple also toured Priory View, a new independent living scheme for older residents, in Dunstable.