The origin of the ass and the elephant

In the interest of learning something new -- anything -- every day, here's a page at the Jump telling of the origin of the donkey as a Democratic symbol and the elephant as the Republican symbol.

I personally think each ought to go away, in favor of something more modern (not as though we have any new interesting animals), like the wolverine (as Letterman says, "Pound for pound the fiercest animal on the planet!") and the killer whale, or something along those lines.