This Film Gives a Voice to the Elephants in First Ever YouTube Video

On this day 20 years ago, April 23rd, something revolutionary happened: the first video was uploaded on a website called ‘YouTube’. A seemingly meaningless 19 second clip of one of the platform’s co-founders, Jawed Karim, sees him standing in front of an elephant enclosure in a zoo, explaining what he thinks is cool about these animals.

With YouTube having become the titan it currently is, ‘Me At The Zoo’ holds a special place in internet history. And with currently 2.53 billion monthly active users worldwide, Jawed Karim has the honour of being the very first living being ever on the platform.

Or is he?

While for the past 20 years the focus has been on Jawed’s experience at the zoo, we finally get to hear the story of those that were there with him all along: the elephants standing behind him.

Launching today, the animal welfare organization World Animal Protection presents a new video, ‘Us Still at the Zoo’, completely made with AI, and which follows the story of Sumithi, an Asian elephant, and her relatives. As the world transformed in countless ways, the video highlights how, for these elephants, nothing much changed.

“Elephants aren’t here to entertain audiences,” said Cameron Harsh, programs director at World Animal Protection US. “They’re intelligent, social, and dynamic individuals who deserve to roam free, not live confined in small spaces. Whether taken from the wild or born in captivity, elephants suffer deeply when denied a natural life. We can’t allow another 20 years of this cruelty.”

Sumithi died after 48 years in captivity. While it’s too late to free her, it’s not too late for others - including Joyce.

Joyce, an African elephant, was brought to the US from the wilds of Zimbabwe in the 1980s after hundreds of elephants were killed in the government’s elephant culling operation. Since arriving in the US alongside 62 other orphaned elephants, Joyce has suffered a traumatic history of performances, isolation, and stress, regularly passed around between zoos, circuses, and other captive attractions around the US. Joyce is currently living in captivity at a Six Flags amusement park in New Jersey. ​


World Animal Protection is actively campaigning for Six Flags to release Joyce and the four other elephants at the theme park to accredited sanctuaries and to shut down its elephant exhibit for good. Moving Joyce and the other elephants to reputable sanctuaries offers them the best opportunity to live out her remaining years in peace, surrounded by nature and free to roam.

​Take action and help release Joyce.