An elephant calf, Tula-Tu plays with a pumpkin, as the Oregon Zoo celebrates Halloween during the 27th annual Squishing of the Squash, in Portland, Oregon, U.S., October 16, 2025. (Photo by Oregon Zoo/Handout via Reuters)

A mahout rides on painted elephant as they march during a procession near the Grand Palace to pay their respects to Thailand's former queen Sirikit in Bangkok on November 27, 2025. (Photo by Chanakarn Laosarakham/AFP Photo)

A “super blood blue moon” is seen during an eclipse behind an elephant statue at a temple in Bangkok, Thailand, January 31, 2018. (Photo by Athit Perawongmetha/Reuters)

A herd of elephants cross a road that passes through the flooded Kaziranga National Park in the northeastern state of Assam, India, July 12, 2017. (Photo by Anuwar Hazarika/Reuters)

An elephant decorated with a cloth walk in the annual Perahera (street pageant) at Rajamaha viharaya Buddhist temple in Colombo, Sri Lanka September 10, 2016. (Photo by Dinuka Liyanawatte/Reuters)

A hunter holds a shot female pheasant next to his dog “Lola”, a Deutsch female Kurzhaar, during the first day of the Italy hunting season in Castell'Azzara, Tuscany, central Italy, September 20, 2015. The number of hunters in Italy has been decreasing, from 1,701,853 in 1980 to 751.876 in 2007, with a percentage reduction of 55.8%, according to the latest available numbers from the national statistics bureau ISTAT. (Photo by Max Rossi/Reuters)

To produce the images that convey his fatalistic and ironic approach to life, tinged with hope, he needed the environment and knowledge of Mother Russia, oiled with a bit of bribery to certain circus trainers. Enter the Great Russian Bear, the personification of Russia for the last several centuries, onto center stage and into his studio. The bear is recognized as both brutish and cute – Misha was the mascot for the 1980 Olympic Games – and has remained a symbol of Russia since Tsarist times. In 2009 it is the symbol of the United Russia Party.

Elephants spray tourists with water in celebration of the Songkran water festival in Thailand's Ayutthaya province, about 80 km (50 miles) north of Bangkok, April 9, 2014. (Photo by Rungroj Yongrit/EFE)