[stevej37]

Five things to know about Laura the elephant:

She can play the harmonica.

The pop star Prince gave her his tambourine. She can play it with her tail. She met him when she was part of a TV commercial filmed in his Minnesota recording studio.

Laura Elizabeth is named after the mother of her owner, W.C. “Chuck” Walters.

Every day, 8,500-pound Laura eats 300 to 500 pounds of food — hay, fruit, vegetables and specialized elephant pellets — and drinks 250 gallons of water. Her owners grow and bale her hay and pile it to the rafters in the barn.

She performed in the Reno, Nev., casino stage show, “Hello, Hollywood, Hello,” in the mid-1980s. The extravaganza, performed on a 1-acre stage, featured a landing jet, an earthquake, a three-story waterfall, a levitating space dome and a cast of 133 singers and dancers. Laura was the disappearing elephant, in a box one minute. Then, wham! she was gone.