To the best of my knowledge, the game functions perfectly fine without an internet connection. The only functionality you lose is that you won't be able to connect to the leaderboard. I'm so glad to hear you got the elephant after discovering that embarrassing bug. I really appreciate all of your feedback!
it has been working without internet as long as I have it loaded!! I should now just comment on how happy about this that I am! Also I managed to merge 3 elephants and make it to 4th place on the global leader board! I have been trying to get everyone in the office to play…. I swear it is because it is fun and addictive and it’s not just so I can take screenshots of my high score and lord it over them :D
I just also want to show some appreciation for details: the animals blinks being different patterns ( the ones with mouth obviously help with this but things at well like the bear blinking twice) and the different animals blinking at different rates, in addition those in the same species have their timing off-set so it's not uncanny. the stars. The subtle star movement in the background is also kind of hypnotizeing. All very nice little effects