For those of us who love elephants, and are always researching or writing about them, we have never failed to understand their intelligence or doubted their human-like qualities. So when we discovered this gem of a video, portraying the science behind an elephant’s “encephalization quotient,” explaining their memory & intelligence in such a fun way … Continue reading »
Paying their last respects to one of their own, a herd of Indian elephants was captured on video making their way through a forested area and across a road. As a family, at one point, the elephants all cluster together on the road, giving the mother elephant time to rest as she lays the body … Continue reading »
For six weeks kind humans in the village of Hirnan in Odisha, India tried in vain to treat a mother elephant for injuries ( a broken leg included) apparently associated with a dreadful fall into “a pit”. Left with “wounds on her right leg and forehead” the mama elephant limped her way into the village … Continue reading »
The sign placed inside the arena states “…Welcome to the Phuket Zoo Elephant Show”… The overzealous crowds have gathered on this day to watch an unnatural and cruel phenomenon, that of elephants being forced to perform elephant tricks in an outmoded, and should be outlawed, elephant show. Into the arena pedals Dumbo struggling to … Continue reading »
This bull elephant, Karnan, who had once worked as a temple elephant in Thrissur, Kerala, Indiais safe now thanks to the elephant charity Voice For Asian Elephants Society (VFAES). But the suffering he has endured at the hands of humans (mahouts) that domination, will, for Karnan or any Asian elephant, never be forgotten. To watch … Continue reading »
How can you measure the value of an experience that very few humans will or could ever hope to witness? Just ask a group of tourists on safari at the Sabi Sands Game Reserve in South Africa. Parked in a safari truck, on the side of a sandy road, they watched in awe as a … Continue reading »
Dr. Poole, in her letter of support, reflects on the angst experienced by captive elephants and how Billy’s “stereotypic head bobbing … not a behavior observed in the wild … is a coping mechanism for the loneliness, boredom and frustration that characterizes his life in the zoo. His behavior is symptomatic of the enormous frustration … Continue reading »
Since the age of four, when he was dragged away from his mother and elephant family in Malaysia, Billy has been held in captivity at the Los Angeles Zoo. That he has been able to survive, for endless years of his life, both physically and emotionally, is beyond what any elephant should have to endure. … Continue reading »
Just looking at baby elephant Khun-Seuk’s sweet contented face as he lays on his side napping (at an unnamed elephant orphanage in Chiang Mai, Thailand) one would not expect such human emotions to shine through. Perhaps in his dreams, his little elephant body & trunk “twitches” and stirs but not enough to interrupt his blissful … Continue reading »
The following was transcribed from the video “Tranquilized Elephant Mother risks crushing her baby / BBC Earth” See little Pink Foot the baby elephant in peril. Watch her African elephant mama, Sylvia, being helped by KWS vet as rangers desperately work to keep her at an arm’s length away from her baby. Narrator: “The dart falls … Continue reading »