Videos of Elephants painting Elephants

[Indenturedebtor]

I've seen this in person myself. No one ever believes me heh. Most are convinced that we are the only creatures on the planet with "inner poetry" - consciousness, concept of self/other, etc.

Check this out:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b3WHhW4VykE&NR=1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=He7Ge7Sogrk&feature=related

We should take better care of all of the critters on this planet.

[itsrobert]

1. Read the comments

The Elephants are being jab with a big metal stick to get them to paint.

[Indenturedebtor]

2. Because someone said they are?

The hook that elephant boys use with the elephants is like a leash for a dog. Elephant skin is as thick as your forearm. It doesn't hurt them, and they're not jabbed with it.

When the boys die prematurely the elephants almost always die because they refuse to eat or drink. Clearly they hate the hook :eyes:

I want elephants to be wild and free but captivity is the only way that they're being conserved in some parts of the world. And when I saw elephants painting in Thailand there was nothing happening to them except the boys would hold the pallette for them.

[Hydra]

3. Elephants are amazing

They're figuring out that we are the enemy.

Also, the whole idea that animals are not possessing of consciousness is BS. We ARE animals. We don't have a monopoly on higher functions.

[rox63]

4. Anyone who thinks animals don't have a higher conscience

doesn't know my cats. :)

[Indenturedebtor]

5. I know. Whenever I tell someone about this they run out to debunk without any knowledge

So much resistance to accepting that other creatures can be intelligent, and perhaps FAR more noble than we are.

Elephants only kill in self defense. They take care of each other, share their food, adopt any orphaned children. We could learn a lot from them.

[Hydra]

7. We used to learn a LOT from animals

Before most of us decided we were some sort of "special" species.

Our great ability is to observe the world and turn other species strategies to our advantage.

Spiders still make stronger cord than we do- we'll figure out how to do that soon enough.

[fasttense]

6. Looks like a trick to me

They are forced to learn to paint like they are forced to learn to ride a bicycle. The one video shows the kid repeatedly taking away the brush and starting him over, probably putting more paint on the brush. It's simply a trick not a heart felt response to depict his elephant world.

[Indenturedebtor]

8. Nope - I watched for hours as the elephants painted all sorts of different scenes

Abstracts of sunsets, flowers, people. All they do is teach them how to hold the brush, which is hard because their trunks are not perfectly adapted to hold a pencil like object. If they didn't want to represent specific objects then how could you possibly train them to do so? Try to teach your cat to paint another cat ;) Then you can move on to sunsets, rivers, flowers, trees etc.

Monkeys too will paint.