Only the tops of Sissy and Winkie's heads poke above the water at their swimming hole.
A minute passes, Winkie nudges Sissy and they both come up for air. Seconds later, Sissy goes under the water again, this time for about two minutes.
But she can't hold her breath in their contest much longer, so she sticks out her gray snout and sprays water over herself and pachyderm pal Winkie.
Sissy and Winkie, two adult female Asian elephants living with four others, spend most days together eating, playing and taking the occasional dip in the pond when the sun beams down on The Elephant Sanctuary.
Opened in 1995 by executive director Carol Buckley and facilities director Scott Blais, the nonprofit refuge outside this small town about 100km southwest of Nashville is the only one of its kind for Asian elephants in North America.
Think of it as a retirement home for elephant entertainers. The six -- Bunny, Jenny, Shirley, Sissy, Tarra and Winkie -- all came from performance backgrounds, mostly at small zoos and circuses. Some suffered malnutrition or accident and abuse injuries.
But here they are shielded from the stares of curious onlookers. The public's only chance to see these elephants is online through streaming webcams on the property.
"What we're striving to do is give them a place to feel free and feel comfortable expressing and being content with who they are," Blais said.
As Buckley says: "The elephants get to be elephants. Some of them have never had that chance."
In return Buckley, Blais, and other invited researchers get to study the habits and social interactions of the species.
Buckley, 49, began working with Blais, 30, more than a decade ago in Cambridge, Ontario. She hired Blais to be the keeper for Tarra, the elephant she purchased while studying exotic animals at California's Moorpark College.
The two are clearly beloved at the 89-hectare sanctuary. As they walk along the animal trails, each elephant acknowledges the humans with body language, postures and sounds. They ask for a pat on the leg or sometimes to be left alone for the day.
The sanctuary currently can accommodate up to a dozen elephants, and Tina, a 33-year-old Asian elephant, arrives from Vancouver in August.
But the sanctuary is poised to get even bigger. The purchase of another 1,000 hectares will allow as many as 100 pachyderms and create a separate refuge for African elephants.
"We could stay how we are ... but we felt strongly that we would be handicapping the elephants' recovery and that if we were really going to learn as much as we can, we needed more land," Buckley said. "Their need to have a vast space to migrate through is important."
Several zoos and wildlife refuges have inquired about the African addition, and three elephants -- Tangy and Zula from The Parks at Chehaw in Albany, Georgia, and Flora from Circus Flora in St. Louis -- will arrive when the first phase of the project is finished by October.
"The whole thing with the expansion began with the needs for our existing elephants, recognizing that we could accommodate their needs, and at the same time be able to accommodate many, many more elephants -- which is great because the family grows," Buckley said.
The six elephants indeed form a kind of blended family, playing the roles they would have in the wild as leader, parent, child and revered elder.
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