Trophy Hunting Should Be Banned, As It Is A Violation Of Many Natural Laws - Elephants Are On A Fast Track To Extinction; 50% Of Them Were Killed In Just Last 7 Years, 100,000 Elephants Have Been Killed In Last 3 Years Alone, Will This Keystone Species Disappear Along With Humans?
Donald Trump’s wildlife protection board full of people who like killing animals for fun | The Independent
There’s little indication dissenting perspectives will be represented on the Trump administration’s conservation council. Appointees include celebrity hunting guides, representatives from rifle and bow manufacturers and wealthy sportspeople who boast of bagging the coveted Big Five – elephant, rhino, lion, leopard and Cape buffalo.
Most are high-profile members of Safari Club International and the National Rifle Association, groups that have sued the Fish and Wildlife Service to expand the list of countries from which trophy kills can be legally imported.
They include the Safari Club’s president, Paul Babaz, a Morgan Stanley investment adviser from Atlanta and Erica Rhoad, a lobbyist and former GOP congressional staffer who is the NRA’s director of hunting policy. Bill Brewster is a retired Oklahoma congressman and lobbyist who served on the boards of the Safari Club and the NRA.
In a letter this week, a coalition of more than 20 environmental and animal welfare groups objected that the one-sided makeup of the council could violate the Federal Advisory Committee Act, which requires government boards to be balanced in terms of points of view and not improperly influenced by special interests.
HOW DOES TROPHY HUNTING VIOLATE AT LEAST FOUR DIFFERENT NATURAL LAWS?
Natural law states that one should never take more than required for basic necessities, and no more than that. Trophy hunting violates this Natural Law, because trophies are not required to be killed. Nature takes care of balancing out the population with existing food and other resources, such as predator and prey.
Natural law also states that one should never take a life unless it is absolutely required for personal survival. Most trophies in Africa are not taken due to the need for personal survival. The meat from a lion is not fit to eat and no trophy hunter would ship an entire carcass back home and eat it.
Natural law also states that to produce the best species survival odds, one never takes the largest and best animal. Predators never kill the strongest and best breeding animal. Rather, they take out the weakest, oldest, sickest animals, which serves to protect the survival of the entire species.
Natural law also states that one must live in balance and harmony with Nature. Flying all over the world killing trophy animals is violating this law of Nature, and creating karma for that person and anyone associated with that person. It also generates a huge carbon footprint, just by driving and flying all over the world to make all of this happen.
Trophy hunters violate at least three Natural Laws just by doing trophy hunting.
NATURAL LAW IS ABOUT RESPECTING ALL LIVING THINGS; TROPHY HUNTING VIOLATES THIS NATURAL LAW
If You Don’t Know, Now You Know: Trophy Hunting | The Daily ShowVIDEO: https://youtu.be/z48HiV6qKGc 7 min
The Daily Show with Trevor Noah Trevor breaks down trophy hunters’ claims about the benefits of killing wild game for sport, a practice which has been further enabled by Trump’s rollbacks of Obama-era endangered species protections."
Bottom line, appreciating, respecting and treating all living things is NOT done by killing them.
Donna George I'm South African. Hunting creates more poverty with our tourism and nature reserves. Dear hunters you took our buffalo's, lions and lastly our rhinos who are becoming extinct. Tell me then how does this help us?
FROM 20 MILLION ELEPHANTS IN THE PRE COLONIAL ERA, WE ARE NOW DOWN TO AN ESTIMATED 350,000 ELEPHANTS TOTAL
What would you call a species that has gone from 20 million down to 350,000? Endangered? Almost extinct?
obewanspeaksAugust 31, 2016 Shouldn't we just finish this species off? Let's send in some 12 year olds with guns, bows and spears..
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3767103/Just-350-000-African-elephants-left-savannah-20MILLION-pre-colonial-era.htmlCrap; 350,000 should be easy to butcher…lets go get em!"
PICTURES OF DEAD ELEPHANTS
(MATURE RATING)
Click to see Pictures of dead elephants
SHOULD TROPHY HUNTING OF ELEPHANTS BE OUTLAWED?
DUDeAugust 31, 2016 350,000 versus 7,000,000.00 the latter with a non-bio-degradable footprint many many times its own size..but trophy hunters claim they help improve the situation..and another part of humanity fights a tooth and a nail against birth-control..all seems about right and (bio)logical /sarc"
While many of the 7 billion religious humans fight against birth control that has been proven to work, in order to reduce the amount of damage done to the Earth and to species such as elephants, humans are also extremely willing to kill huge numbers of elephants, because the elephants are 'breeding' too fast. Of course, it helps that the meat and ivory can be sold for a profit. Who is going to turn down FREE and very profitable elephants that can be sold for PROFIT?
Better yet, why not offer trophy hunting of the genetically best and biggest bulls as is being done now? These trophy hunters are leaving the genetically inferior male elephants to breed with the remaining 'worthless' females that have small tusks. Elephants with the biggest tusks are 'harvested' while the inferior ones are left to escape.
TROPHY HUNTING IS LIKE REVERSE EUGENICS
TROPHY HUNTING ELEPHANT SAFARI KILL SHOT; taking the biggest and best bull of course
(MATURE) VIDEO: https://youtu.be/SP_AaKuIkqY 2 min
Trophy hunting is like a reverse Eugenics policy. Take out the best that Nature has created and leave the worst; diseased, weak, genetically inferior males... That sounds like a GREAT plan, for a crazy insane person with a huge ego, bent on taking only for him or herself... at any cost.
But these hunters also do not understand how elephants interact. The family units are much closer than human ones. Taking out the 'father' figure in the elephant family would be like killing a human father in an extended family, with dozens of children and several wives.
The impact of taking out the biggest and best bull elephant whether by hunting, poisoning or poaching is much worse than a first appearance would suggest. Elephants are intensely social animals and grieve, plus suffer from things like PTSD, caused by the trauma of hunting and killing their family members.
If hunting of elephants were to be allowed in a world where Nature and natural law is respected and honored, hunters would ONLY kill the weakest, oldest, sickest elephants, like a predator in Nature would, not the biggest and genetically best ones.
Killing the best and biggest animals anywhere is like a farmer killing his only and best prize bull who is out in the field with the females. After the prize bull is gone, it leaves the genetic runt who is damaged and deformed to breed with all of the cows. What could go wrong?
If hunting of elephants were to be allowed in a world where Nature and natural law is respected and honored, hunters would ONLY kill the weakest, oldest, sickest elephants, like a predator in Nature would, not the biggest and genetically best ones.
Killing the best and biggest animals anywhere is like a farmer killing his only and best prize bull who is out in the field with the females. After the prize bull is gone, it leaves the genetic runt who is damaged and deformed to breed with all of the cows. What could go wrong?
THE PROBLEM WITH 'TROPHY' HUNTING IS ALL ENDANGERED BIG GAME SPECIES ARE TARGETS; LIONS, TIGERS, ELEPHANTS, GIRAFFES, ETC
Cecil the Lion's son Xanda was shot and killed by trophy hunters. Someone has to stop this cruelty. Sign the petition: care2.com/go/z/forxanda
HOW PARK RANGERS HAVE BEEN PART OF THE PROBLEM, THEY HAVE BEEN SLAUGHTERING THOUSANDS OF ELEPHANTS EACH YEAR
How the park rangers help slaughter elephants by the thousands each year, on the pretext that there are way too many of them.
Really?
Who decided that?
Is anyone else having problems with figuring out how 20 million elephants used to exist on the continent in Africa, and there was no problem between them and the indigenous tribes. But now all of a sudden, there are way too many elephants, and they pretty much all need to be killed?
There very well may be too many elephants in a specific local area or region, but maybe that is because the elephants are going there due to poaching or hunting or clear cutting of their food sources in other areas.
Why aren't other solutions being considered, such as transporting elephants or herding them to other areas that lost all of their elephants?
100,000 ELEPHANTS HAVE BEEN KILLED BY POACHERS ALONE IN JUST THE LAST THREE YEARS
100,000 Elephants Killed by Poachers in Just Three Years, Landmark Analysis Finds
Elephants are vital to the web of life in Africa. As a keystone species, they help balance all the other species in their ecosystem, opening up forest land to create firebreaks and grasslands, digging to create water access for other animals, and leaving nutrients in their wake. Sometimes called the "megagardeners of the forest," elephants are essential to the dispersal of seeds that maintain tree diversity.
Since three out of four local populations are declining, those losses have serious ecological implications. "That's a problem we probably didn't speak to strongly enough in this paper," Wittemyer said.
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/08/140818-elephants-africa-poaching-cites-census/WARS AND LAND MINES TAKE OUT A LOT OF ELEPHANTS TOO
Land mines are not cleared in areas that are home to both elephants and humans. Even after the wars are done and over with, the landmines stay. Guess what happens to elephants that wander into an old field of land mines?Crippled Elephant Mercy Kill
VIDEO: https://youtu.be/pAVjB7EHK1w
EXTINCTION OF INTELLIGENT MAMMAL SPECIES IS NOT JUST POSSIBLE, IT IS FAIRLY EASY TO DO, AS AMERICAN CONTINENTAL ARCHAEOLOGICAL RECORDS SHOW; ARE HUMANS NEXT ON THE EXTINCTION LIST?
Many large warm blooded species went extinct on the American continent. It was not hard to do, and it can happen again, this time with a species known as humans.The bones of at least 140 mastodons and 18 mammoths have been found in New York state alone.
http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2014/01/what-killed-great-beasts-north-america
Humans are unlike any other mammal species. All other mammal species breed only to the point where they are in equilibrium with what the surrounding environment can provide for them in terms of food, etc. Indigenous humans live like all other species, living in harmony with Nature and not overtaxing the environment.
But modern, civilized humans do everything differently from the indigenous tribes, and then have the gall to call themselves 'advanced' or more intelligent. Advanced militarized civilizations move in, usually illegally. Then they take all of the resources. Once the resources are depleted, they leave the open pit uranium mines, coal waste piles and toxic waste leftovers, only to move on to other areas, depleting them of mineral resources, trees, animals, vegetation, soil fertility, fresh water supplies, etc.
Whatever is there, is sold for PROFIT, no matter what it is, until it is completely GONE, and even then, more is sought, as the current fracking boom illustrates. Greed is a terminal dis-ease infecting modern, civilized human mammals exclusively, and according to the American Indian prophets, this is what will cause their extinction.
Whatever is there, is sold for PROFIT, no matter what it is, until it is completely GONE, and even then, more is sought, as the current fracking boom illustrates. Greed is a terminal dis-ease infecting modern, civilized human mammals exclusively, and according to the American Indian prophets, this is what will cause their extinction.
We’ve killed off half the world’s animals since 1970
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2014/09/30/weve-killed-off-half-the-worlds-animals-since-1970/
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Barry Bozeman STEWARDSHIP not DOMINION - We must care for all life on our home.
If this out of control 'taking' behavior continues, modern mammals can be classified with another form of life that also behaves this way, right up to a suicidal end; cancer. Are modern, civilized humans so greedy and self centered, that they will commit genocide of all species of life on the planet, including themselves? So far, it does not look good, as multiple negative tipping points have been triggered... Maybe humans deserve to die by killing themselves off, just like cancer, which kills itself due to self absorbed growth and consuming everything around itself, no matter what.
Violating Natural Laws triggers the law of karma. The karma that humanity is experiencing currently is an extinction event, created entirely by human actions that violate multiple Natural Laws. Unless humanity learns how to living in harmony with Nature and obey Natural Laws, extinction of humanity will be the final karmic solution.
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Law of Karma, Forgiveness, 12 Principles And Power Of Empathy, Definition, Research, Religious Views In Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Baha'i, Buddhism, Hinduism, Jainism, Hoʻoponopono, Humanist, Relationship, Meditation Experiential Exercise
ELEPHANTS ARE AMONG THE WORLD'S MOST INTELLIGENT ANIMALS, WITH THE LARGEST BRAINS OF ANY LAND ANIMAL
Elephants are super intelligent
VIDEO: https://www.facebook.com/ScienceNaturePage/videos/1246294048836184/
VIDEO: https://www.facebook.com/ScienceNaturePage/videos/1246294048836184/
Wikipedia; "Elephants are among the world's most intelligent animals. With a mass of just over 5 kg (11 lb), elephant brains have more mass than those of any other land animal, and although the largest whales have body masses twenty-fold those of a typical elephant, whale brains are barely twice the mass of an elephant's brain. In addition, elephants have a total of 300 billion neurons.[1]Elephant brains are similar to humans' in terms of general connectivity and areas. The elephantcortex has as many neurons as a human brain,[2] suggesting convergent evolution.[3]
Elephants express a wide variety of behaviors, including those associated with grief, learning,mimicry, play, altruism, use of tools, compassion, cooperation,[4][5] self-awareness, memory, andcommunication.[6] Further, evidence suggests elephants may understand pointing: the ability to nonverbally communicate an object by extending a finger, or equivalent.[7]
Such behaviors suggest that elephants are highly intelligent; it is thought they are equal with cetaceans[8][9][10][11]and primates[9][12][13] in this regard. Due to the high intelligence and strong family ties of elephants, some researchers argue it is morally wrong for humans to cull them.[14] The Ancient Greek philosopher, Aristotle, once said that elephants were "the animal which surpasses all others in wit and mind."[15]
Brain structure Cerebral cortex
The elephant (both Asian and African) has a very large and highly complex neocortex, a trait also shared by humans, apes and certain dolphin species.
Asian elephants have the greatest volume of cerebral cortex available for cognitive processing of all existing land animals. Elephants have a volume of cerebral cortex available for cognitive processing that exceeds that of any primate species, with one study suggesting elephants be placed in the category of great apes in terms of cognitive abilities for tool use and tool making.[12]
The elephant brain exhibits a gyral pattern more complex and with more numerous convolutions, or brain folds, than that of humans, primates, or carnivores, but less complex than cetaceans,[16]although elephants have as many cortical neurons (nerve cells) and cortical synapses as that of humans, which is more than that of the cetaceans.[2]
Elephants are believed to rank equal with dolphins in terms of problem-solving abilities,[10] and many scientists tend to rank elephant intelligence at the same level as cetaceans; a 2011 article published by ABC Science states that, "elephants [are as] smart as chimps, [and] dolphins".[8]
Other features of the brain
Elephants also have a very large and highly convoluted hippocampus, a brain structure in the limbic system that is much bigger than that of any human, primate or cetacean.[17] The hippocampus of an elephant takes up about 0.7% of the central structures of the brain, comparable to 0.5% for humans and with 0.1% in Risso's dolphins and 0.05% in bottlenose dolphins.[18]
The hippocampus is linked to emotion through the processing of certain types of memory, especially spatial. This is thought to be possibly why elephants suffer from psychological flashbacks and the equivalent of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).[19][20]
The encephalization quotient (EQ) (the size of the brain relative to body size) of elephants ranges from 1.13 to 2.36. The average EQ is 2.14 for Asian elephants, and 1.67 for African, with the overall average being 1.88.[21]:151 In comparison to other animals, the La Plata dolphin has an EQ of 1.67; the Ganges River dolphin of 1.55; the orca of 2.57; the bottlenose dolphin of 4.14; and the tucuxi dolphin of 4.56;[22] chimpanzees at 2.49; dogs at 1.17, cats at 1.00; and mice at 0.50. Humans have an EQ of 7.44.[23]
Brain size at birth relative to adult brain size
Like humans, elephants must learn behavior as they grow up. They are not born with the instincts of how to survive.[24] Elephants have a very long period in their lives for learning, lasting for around ten years. One comparative way to try to gauge intelligence is to compare brain size at birth to the fully developed adult brain.
This indicates how much learning a species accumulates while young. The majority of mammals are born with a brain close to 90% of the adult weight,[24] while humans are born with 28%,[24] bottlenose dolphins with 42.5%,[25]chimpanzees with 54%,[24] and elephants with 35%.[26] This indicates that elephants have the highest amount of learning to undergo next to humans, and behavior is not mere instinct but must be taught throughout life. It should be noted that instinct is quite different from learned intelligence. Parents teach their young how to feed, use tools and learn their place in the highly complex elephant society. The cerebrum temporal lobes, which function as storage of memory, are much larger than those of a human.[24]
Spindle neurons
Spindle cells appear to play a central role in the development of intelligent behavior. As well as in humans and the great apes, spindle neurons are also found in the brains of both Asian and African elephants,[27] as well as humpback whales, fin whales, killer whales, sperm whales,[28][29] bottlenose dolphins, Risso's dolphins, and beluga whales.[30] The remarkable similarity between the elephant brain and the human brain supports the thesis of convergent evolution.[21]
Elephant society
The elephant has one of the most closely knit societies of any living species. Elephant families can only be separated by death or capture. Cynthia Moss, an ethologist specialising in elephants, recalls an event involving a family of African elephants. Two members of the family were shot by poachers, who were subsequently chased off by the remaining elephants. Although one of the elephants died, the other, named Tina, remained standing, but with knees beginning to give way.
Two family members, Trista and Teresia (Tina's mother), walked to both sides of Tina and leaned in to hold her up. Eventually, Tina grew so weak, she fell to the ground and died. However, Trista and Teresia did not give up but continually tried to lift her. They managed to get Tina into a sitting position, but her body was lifeless and fell to the ground again. As the other elephant family members became more intensely involved in the aid, they tried to put grass into Tina's mouth.
Teresia then put her tusks beneath Tina's head and front quarters and proceeded to lift her. As she did so, her right tusk broke completely off, right up to the lip and nerve cavity. The elephants gave up trying to lift Tina but did not leave her; instead, they began to bury her in a shallow grave and throw leaves over her body. They stood over Tina for the night and then began to leave in the morning. The last to leave was Teresia.[31]
Because elephants are so closely knit and highly matriarchal, a family can be devastated by the death of another (especially a matriarch), and some groups never recover their organization. Cynthia Moss has observed a mother, after the death of her calf, walk sluggishly at the back of a family for many days.[31]
Edward Topsell stated in his publication The History of Four-Footed Beasts in 1658, "There is no creature among all the Beasts of the world which hath so great and ample demonstration of the power and wisdom of almighty God as the elephant.[32] " Elephants are believed to be on par with chimpanzees with regards to their cooperative skills.[4]
Elephant altruism
Elephants are thought to be highly altruistic animals that even aid other species, including humans, in distress. In India, an elephant was helping locals lift logs by following a truck and placing the logs in pre-dug holes upon instruction from the mahout (elephant trainer). At a certain hole, the elephant refused to lower the log. The mahout came to investigate the hold-up and noticed a dog sleeping in the hole. The elephant only lowered the log when the dog was gone.[33] When an elephant is hurt, other elephants (even if they are unrelated) aid them.[24]
Cynthia Moss has often seen elephants going out of their way to avoid hurting or killing a human, even when it was difficult for them (such as having to walk backwards to avoid a person). Joyce Poole documented an encounter told to her by Colin Francombe on Kuki Gallman's Laikipia Ranch. A ranch herder was out on his own with camels when he came across a family of elephants. The matriarch charged at him and knocked him over with her trunk, breaking one of his legs.
In the evening, when he did not return, a search party was sent in a truck to find him. When the party discovered him, he was being guarded by an elephant. The animal charged the truck, so they shot over her and scared her away. The herdsman later told them that when he could not stand up, the elephant used her trunk to lift him under the shade of a tree. She guarded him for the day and would gently touch him with her trunk.[24]
Self-medication
Further information: Zoopharmacognosy
Elephants in Africa self-medicate by chewing on the leaves of a tree from the family Boraginaceae, which induces labour. Kenyans also use this tree for the same purpose.[34]
Death ritual
Elephants are the only species of mammals other than Homo sapiens sapiens and Neanderthals known to have or have had any recognizable ritual around death. They (elephants) show a keen interest in the bones of their own kind (even unrelated elephants that have died long ago). They are often seen gently investigating the bones with their trunks and feet while remaining very quiet. Sometimes elephants that are completely unrelated to the deceased still visit their graves.[15]
Elephant researcher Martin Meredith recalls in his book an occurrence of a typical elephant death ritual as witnessed by Anthony Hall-Martin, a South African biologist who had studied elephants in Addo, South Africa, for over eight years. The entire family of a dead matriarch, including her young calf, were all gently touching her body with their trunks, trying to lift her.
The elephant herd were all rumbling loudly. The calf was observed to be weeping and made sounds that sounded like a scream, but then the entire herd fell incredibly silent. They then began to throw leaves and dirt over the body and broke off tree branches to cover her. They spent the next two days quietly standing over her body. They sometimes had to leave to get water or food, but they would always return.[35]
Occurrences of elephants behaving this way around human beings are common throughout Africa. On many occasions, they have buried dead or sleeping humans or aided them when they were hurt.[24] Meredith also recalls an event told to him by George Adamson, a Kenyan Game Warden, regarding an old Turkana woman who fell asleep under a tree after losing her way home. When she woke up, there was an elephant standing over her, gently touching her. She kept very still because she was very frightened. As other elephants arrived, they began to scream loudly and buried her under branches. She was found the next morning by the local herdsmen, unharmed.[35]
George Adamson also recalls when he shot a bull elephant from a herd that kept breaking into the government gardens of Northern Kenya. George gave the elephant's meat to local Turkana tribesmen and then dragged the rest of the carcass half a mile (800 m) away. That night, the other elephants found the body and took the shoulder blade and leg bone and returned the bones to the exact spot the elephant was killed.[36] Scientists often debate the extent that elephants feel emotion.[36]
Play
Joyce Poole on many occasions has observed wild African elephants at play. They apparently do things for their own and others' entertainment. Elephants have been seen sucking up water, holding their trunk high in the air, and then spraying the water like a fountain.[24]
Mimicry
Recent studies have shown that elephants can also mimic sounds they hear. The discovery was found when Mlaika, an orphaned elephant, would copy the sound of trucks passing by. So far, the only other animals that are thought to mimic sounds are whales, dolphins, bats, primates and birds.[37] Calimero, an African elephant who was 23 years old, also exhibited a unique form of mimicry. He was in a Swiss zoo with some Asian elephants. Asian elephants use chirps that are different from African elephants' deep rumbling noises. Calimero also began to chirp and not make the deep calls that his species normally would.[38]
Kosik, an Indian elephant at Everland Amusement Park, South Korea can imitate up to five Korean words, including sit, no, yes and lie down.[39] Kosik produces these human-like sounds by putting his trunk in his mouth and then shaking it while breathing out, similar to how people whistle with their fingers.[40]
Elephants use contact calls to stay in touch with one another when they are out of one another's sight. Female elephants are able to remember and distinguish the contact calls of female family and bond group members from those of females outside of their extended family network. They can also distinguish between the calls of family units depending upon how frequently they came across them.[41]
Joyce Poole, of the Amboseli Elephant Research Project, Kenya, has demonstrated vocal learning and imitation in elephants of sounds made by each other and in the environment. She is beginning to research whether sounds made by elephants have dialects, a trait that is rare in the animal kingdom.[37]
Tool use
Further information: Tool use by animals § Elephants
Elephants show a remarkable ability to use tools, using their trunks like arms. Elephants have been observed digging holes to drink water and then ripping bark from a tree, chewing it into the shape of a ball, filling in the hole and covering over it with sand to avoid evaporation, then later going back to the spot for a drink. They also often use branches to swat flies or scratch themselves.[33] Elephants have also been known to drop very large rocks onto an electric fence either to ruin the fence or to cut off the electricity.[24] Asian elephants in India have been known to break electric fences using logs and clear the surrounding wires using their tusks to provide a safe passageway.
Art and music
An elephant painting
Like several other species that are able to produce abstract art, elephants using their trunks to hold brushes create paintings which some have compared to the work of abstract expressionists.[42] However, it is unclear whether the elephants assign any meaning to the paintings that they have created. Elephant art is now commonly featured at zoos, and is shown in museums and galleries around the world.[43]
Ruby at the Phoenix Zoo is considered the original elephant art star,[44] and her paintings have sold for as much as $25,000.[42]Ruby chose her own colors and "had a very keen sense of what color, in what sequence, she wanted".[44] The Asian Elephant Art & Conservation Project, an "elephant art academy" in New York, teaches retired elephants to paint. For paintings that resemble identifiable objects, teachers give the elephants guidance.[42]
An example of this was shown in the TV program Extraordinary Animals, in which elephants at a camp in Thailand were able to draw portraits with flowers. Although the images were drawn by the elephants, there was always a trainer assisting and guiding the movement.[45]
A popular video showing an elephant painting a picture of another elephant became widespread on internet news and video websites.[46] The website snopes.com, which specializes in debunking urban legends, lists the video as "partly true", in that the elephant produced the brush strokes, but notes that the similarity of the produced paintings is indicative of a learned sequence of strokes rather than a creative effort on the part of the elephant.[45]
It was noted by ancient Romans and Asian elephant handlers (mahouts) that elephants can distinguish melodies. Performing circus elephants commonly follow musical cues and Adam Forepaugh and Barnum & Bailey circuses even featured "elephant bands". German evolutionary biologist Bernard Rensch studied an elephant's ability to distinguish music, and in 1957 published the results in Scientific American.
Rensch's test elephant could distinguish 12 tones in the music scale and could remember simple melodies. Even though played on varying instruments and at different pitches, timbres and meters, she recognized the tones a year and a half later.[47] These results have been backed up by the Human-Elephant Learning Project which studies elephant intelligence.[48]
An elephant named Shanthi at the National Zoo in Washington D.C. has displayed the ability to play the harmonica and various horn instruments. She reportedly always ends her songs with a crescendo.[49]
Recording group Thai Elephant Orchestra is an ensemble of elephants who improvise music on specially made instruments with minimal interaction from their handlers. The orchestra was co-founded by pachyderm expert Richard Lair, who works at the Thai Elephant Conservation Center in Lampang,[48] and David Sulzer (artist name, Dave Soldier) who studies the role of dopaminergic synapses in memory consolidation, learning, and behavior at Columbia University.[42]
According to neurobiologist Aniruddh Patel, the orchestra's star drummer named Pratidah, exhibits musicality, stating: "Either when drumming alone or with the orchestra, Pratidah was remarkably steady,". He also noted that she developed a swing-type rhythmpattern when playing with other elephants.[42]
Problem-solving ability
Elephant stacking blocks to allow it to reach food
Elephants are able to spend substantial time working on problems. They are able to change their behavior radically to face new challenges, a hallmark of complex intelligence. A 2010 experiment revealed that in order to reach food, "elephants can learn to coordinate with a partner in a task requiring two individuals to simultaneously pull two ends of the same rope to obtain a reward",[4][50] putting them on an equal footing with chimpanzees in terms of their level of cooperative skills.
In the 1970s, at Marine World Africa, USA, there lived an Asian elephant named Bandula. Bandula worked out how to break open or unlock several of the pieces of equipment used to keep the shackles on her feet secure. The most complex device was a Brummel hook, a device that closes when two opposite points are slid together. Bandula used to fiddle with the hook until it slid apart when it was aligned. Once she had freed herself, she would help the other elephants escape.[34] In Bandula's case and certainly with other captive elephants, there was an element of deception involved during the escapes, such as the animals looking around making sure no one was watching.[34]
In another case, a female elephant worked out how she could unscrew iron rods with an eye hole that was an inch (2.5 cm) thick. She used her trunk to create leverage and then untwisted the bolt.[34]
Ruby, an Asian elephant at Phoenix Zoo would often eavesdrop on conversations keepers would have talking about her. When she heard the word paint, she became very excitable. The colors she favored were green, yellow, blue and red. Once, a fire truck came and parked outside her enclosure where a man had just had a heart attack. The lights on the truck were flashing red, white and yellow. When Ruby painted later on in the day, she chose those colors. She also showed a preference for colors that the keepers wore.[34]
Harry Peachey, an elephant trainer, developed a cooperative relationship with an elephant named Koko. Koko would help the keepers out, "prompting" them to encourage him with various commands and words that Koko would learn. Peachey stated that elephants are almost predisposed to cooperate and work with humans as long as they are treated with respect and sensitivity. Koko worked out when his keepers needed a bit of "elephant help" when they were transferring the females of the group to another zoo.
When the keepers wanted to transfer a female, they would usually say her name, followed by the word transfer (e.g., "Connie transfer"). Koko soon figured out what this meant. If the keepers asked an elephant to transfer and they did not budge, they would say, "Koko, give me a hand." When he heard this, Koko would help. After 27 years of working with elephants, Peachey firmly believes that they can understand the semantics and syntax of some of the words they hear. This is something thought to be very rare in the animal kingdom.[34]
A study by Dr. Naoko Irie of Tokyo University has shown that elephants demonstrate skills at arithmetic. The experiment "consist[ed] of dropping varying numbers of apples into two buckets in front of the [Ueno Zoo] elephants and then recording how often they could correctly choose the bucket holding the most fruit."
When more than one apple was being dropped into the bucket, this meant that the elephants had to "keep running totals in their heads to keep track of the count." The results showed that "Seventy-four percent of the time, the animals correctly picked the fullest bucket. An African elephant named Ashya scored the highest with an amazing eighty-seven percent … Humans in this same contest managed a success rate of just sixty-seven percent." The study was also filmed to ensure its accuracy.[51]
A study on Discovery News found that elephants, during an intelligence test employing food rewards, had found shortcuts that not even the experiment's researchers had thought of.[9]
Self-awareness
Asian elephants have joined a small group of animals, including great apes, bottlenose dolphins and eurasian magpies, that exhibit self-awareness. The study was conducted with the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) using elephants at the Bronx Zoo in New York. Although many animals respond to a mirror, very few show any evidence that they recognize it is in fact themselves in the mirror reflection.
The Asian elephants in the study also displayed this type of behavior when standing in front of a 2.5-by-2.5-metre (8.2 ft × 8.2 ft) mirror - they inspected the rear and brought food close to the mirror for consumption.
Evidence of elephant self awareness was shown when the elephant Happy repeatedly touched a painted X on her head with her trunk, a mark which could only be seen in the mirror. Happy ignored another mark made with colorless paint that was also on her forehead to ensure she was not merely reacting to a smell or feeling.
Frans De Waal, who ran the study, stated, "These parallels between humans and elephants suggest a convergent cognitive evolution possibly related to complex society and cooperation."[52]
Self-awareness and culling
There has been considerable debate over the issue of culling African elephants in South Africa's Kruger National Park as a means of controlling the population. Some scientists and environmentalists argue that it is "unnecessary and inhumane" to cull them[53] since "elephants resemble humans in a number of ways, not least by having massive brains, social bonds that appear to be empathetic, long gestations, high intelligence, offspring that require an extended period of dependent care, and long life spans."[3]:20824 A South African Animal Rights group asked in a statement anticipating the announcement, "How much like us do elephants have to be before killing them becomes murder?"[54]
Others argue that culling is necessary when biodiversity is threatened.[55] However, the protection of biodiversity argument has been questioned by some animal rights advocates who argue that the animal which most greatly threatens and damages biodiversity is humanity, so if we are not willing to cull our own species we cannot morally justify culling another.[56][57]
Tears
An elephant, Raju, who had been in captivity for 50 years in the Uttar Pradesh region of India, was freed in a midnight raid by conservationists on July 3–4, 2014. During the release, it was noted that the elephant appeared to be crying, as tears were seen coming from his eyes.[58] The case became widely known, and Raju was called in many headlines and news articles "the Crying Elephant."[59][60][61][62]
A baby elephant called Zhuangzhuang was rejected by its mother in 2013. Caretakers thought it was an accident so they treated his injuries and returned him to his mother only for her to reject him again. Caretakers took the elephant away and he cried for 5 hours before the staff could comfort him.[63][64]
See also
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elephant_cognition
SUMMARY
Killing big game trophy animals like elephants, seems to be all the rage...The poachers do it
The trophy hunters do it
The park rangers do it
The land mines and wars do it
The indigenous tribes do it
Would it be fair to say that very intelligent social creatures such as elephants will have about another 6 or 7 years before extinction?
Another keystone species is biting the dust, much like the starfish and sardines in the Pacific.
Then the whole ecosystem will collapse, because so many other species rely on elephants being around for their survival.
WHAT YOU CAN DO; HELP BAN TROPHY HUNTING
Ban trophy hunting. It is bad for so many reasons..
WHAT YOU CAN DO; TROPHY HUNT WITH A CAMERA OR VIDEO EQUIPMENT, NOT WITH GUNS
Anyone can shoot endangered species with a higher powered rifle from a long distance, where the animal has no chance at all. This is not bravery, it is cowardice. Trophy hunting is violating Natural Laws, and causes suffering for all concerned.
What takes a really brave person is 'hunting' endangered species with a camera or with video equipment. What takes a really brave person is getting close to these animals and learning about how they live, and what they need, and then helping them to get that, whatever it may be.
Sometimes the answer is conserving wilderness, so that wild animals have someplace to live.
Don't go down the wide freeway, where violence, death and destruction rule, because that is the way to violating Natural Laws and suffering. Instead, go down the path less traveled, and follow your own inner leadings, your heart, empathy, compassion and dreams that align with Natural Laws, respecting other living beings, and allowing them the space and freedom to live without fear of being killed.
Go deeper
What Is Stewardship? Carl Sagan; A Pale Blue Dot - A Dust Mote In A Sun Beam - Who Will Save Us From Ourselves? Be The Hero Leader You Are Waiting For - Be The Change You Are Seeking - Take Action Now To Protect 7 Future Generations - Use The Power Of Natural Law
WHAT YOU CAN DO; ENDORSE, LEARN, TRANSFORM, DONATE, SHARE, SUPPORT, SPONSOR, CONNECT, COMMENT, AND/OR COLLABORATE
DONATE
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Please help AGRP get this news out... thanks for your generous and very appreciated support! What you support grows and expands. What you withhold support from shrinks, shrivels and disappears. Even .50 cents per month is a great help. What is teaching the science of sustainable health worth?
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COPYRIGHT
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Wayne Dyer - What You Think, You Become (Wayne Dyer Meditation)
AUDIO: https://youtu.be/OAhUUHnq2Ok 10 min
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Index, Table Of Contents
End
Trophy Hunting Should Be Banned, As It Is A Violation Of Many Natural Laws - Elephants Are On A Fast Track To Extinction; 50% Of Them Were Killed In Just Last 7 Years, 100,000 Elephants Have Been Killed In Last 3 Years Alone, Will This Keystone Species Disappear Along With Humans?
https://www.agreenroadjournal.com/2016/09/elephants-are-on-fast-track-to.html
https://www.agreenroadjournal.com/2016/09/elephants-are-on-fast-track-to.html
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