It has many names--a spotted elephant, a Texas Leaguer and others unfit for a family publication.
Hence, in turn, our own notion that a white elephant is a valuable possession which cannot be disposed of, even though the expense of maintaining it is out of all proportion to its usefulness or worth.
If these odds sound unpromising, head to Knysna Elephant Park, a pioneering elephant rehabilitation centre, 22km east of Knysna, where you can learn more about the plight of the diminished local population through various activities, including guided walks with the resident nellies.
Visitors to the website are greeted not by a picture of a baby elephant up for adoption but by a bit of landscape and the chance to adopt an African acre in an important place.
The elephant got a bigger trailer, the elephant got four showers a day.
As we sit and watch, a desert elephant storms up, blasting itself with a trunkful of dust to keep cool.
No surprise for a man who, in his own words, has "an urge, like a pregnant elephant, to go away and give birth to a book".
The only new enemy that even made an impression was a giant elephant warrior whose brain plops out of its skull like a deflated beach ball when you kill it.
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Footage of a circus elephant being beaten and kicked has been shown at the trial of a couple accused of cruelty.
In fact, a single elephant bird egg is about the equivalent of 120 normal chicken eggs.
Much, then, is riding on the success of a plane that Boeing dismisses as a white elephant.
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The calls for a ban increased following revelations of the mistreatment of a circus elephant, Anne, last year.
Six years ago she added a baby elephant named Jabulani to this menagerie.
They point out the "ghost town" of Kilamba in Angola, a grandiose project often labeled as a white elephant.
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The call of a bull elephant is unmistakable in the African plains.
"There was not a mechanical elephant anywhere in this picture, " Murray confirmed.
However Fife Council has insisted it would not become a white elephant.
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There is also a tour of the historic sites and points of interest in Delhi, gourmet Indian cuisine, and a unique elephant-back safari.
Last month, local people in Chitwan, southern Nepal, staged a strike and demanded that a rogue elephant be killed after it had taken the lives of three people.
Moemi Batshabang, assistant director for management and utilisation in Botswana's wildlife department, believes the sale is necessary for his country and that culling is unavoidable because of a growing elephant population.
Chinese kitchens are often small and in high-rise buildings -- creating a squeeze for a cooker which is between 90 and 110cm wide and weighs around the same as a baby elephant.
Add in the likelihood that the rate cap leads to escalating subsidies, and no wonder that some Brazilians wonder whether an all-too familiar species has re-emerged in the Amazon: a white elephant.
On a recent visit to the National Zoo in Washington, I met with Preston Foerder and Diana Reiss of Hunter College, who showed me what Kandula, a young elephant bull, can do if the problem is presented differently.
There will be endless promises to ensure that there is a positive legacy of London 2012, that we are more sporting as a nation, more inclusive and that the Olympic Park revives east London and does not become a white elephant.
She told with great emphasis a story about her mother, who remembered falling and breaking her teeth on the steps leading into the courtyard of a lost family home, steps that were tall and broad to accommodate the enormous tread of a riding elephant.
Used in a room with elephant gray and even a bit of acid yellow, you get a palette that is sophisticated, a little Barbar, bonnie and bright without any superheroes, princesses or Disney characters (those will be brought in by the tenants themselves, no doubt).
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However, if nothing but a lion or elephant will do, then venture a few hours inland to the Selous Game Reserve.
Now, she is getting trained by Elephant Junction - a private firm which provides elephant safaris.
"The law is a slow-moving elephant, and technology is a graceful gazelle, " she said.
During our trip, the tour driver inadvertently parked in the path of a mother and baby elephant, obstructing their way to a watering hole.
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