
An Elephant Burial - CMartucci
http://whatblag.com/2011/10/29/an-elephant-burial/
======
someperson
I wonder how much of this is due to the elephant having been shot (as opposed
to being killed by a more comprehensible form of injury). The group of animals
may have minimal contact with guns and not understand what happened.

From the herds perspective, they successfully escaped from the scary humans
who made loud sounds but one elephant suddenly just toppled over after they
escaped.

Confused they try to get her to her feet.

Later once its clear she's not coming with them, they cover her body to give
it some form of protection against the elements or scavengers, if she wakes up
later she might be able to catch up with the herd.

~~~
srean
Elephants share strong emotional ties with family members. From well
documented behavior it is also very likely that they have an understanding of
death (and birth) as well.

You can read this report about how a herd tried to protect a baby elephant
that had got stuck in the railway track. The other elephants tried to block
the train, possibly aware that the would be grievously injured.
[http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/wildlife/8021988/Seven-
elep...](http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/wildlife/8021988/Seven-elephants-
killed-by-speeding-train-in-India.html)

This area has witnessed quite a few elephant deaths over the years, on an
average, five elephants are killed every year here. Elephants have been run
over by trains when their herds have in the process of crossing the tracks.
Usually a single animal is hit. Lone elephants who have lost their mate have
also been documented to attack railway engines. This is a behavior that's not
been seen prior to these elephant accidents.

------
_grrr
That mammals other than humans are capable of emotion and concious thought
comes as no surprise to me. Why some humans derive pleasure from inflicting
unnecessary cruelty towards other beasts I will never understand.

~~~
JoachimSchipper
Really? People like feeling powerful, that's reason enough.

I'm well aware that it's a rhetoric question, but do try to understand why
people do evil. Declaring them insane does not help you stop it.

(Also, there is no indication that anyone derived pleasure from unnecessary
cruelty in this article.)

~~~
njloof
I assume he was referring to the poachers.

------
burgerbrain
Fascinating stuff. Is anybody familiar with the amount of ritual usually
needed by archaeologists to suggest that some sort of religious tendancies
might be present in a particular group of ancient hominids? The possibility
that elephants could have some sort of rudimentary religious thoughts would be
a great breakthrough I think.

Burial itself is mentioned here:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paleolithic_religion>

~~~
Bockit
I did a semester of 'Religious Studies' focusing primarily on non-monotheistic
religions as an undergrad and when we studied the origins of religion the
absolute earliest things to be considered religious was when some kind of
ritual was put into the treatment of the dead.

The example of the earliest known burial on the wiki page you linked sounds
like one of the specific events we studied.

"The earliest undisputed human burial dates back 90,000 years. Human skeletal
remains stained with red ochre were discovered[by whom?] in the Skhul cave at
Qafzeh, Israel. A variety of grave goods were present at the site, including
the mandible of a wild boar in the arms of one of the skeletons."

------
lemma
Not having grown up around animals, I'm constantly amazed by the intelligence
behind some of the things my dog does. She has given me a much greater
appreciation of nonhuman intelligence, and I've grown to one stories like
this.

~~~
scott_s
In grad school, I lived with a girl, and after some time, her boyfriend and
their dog moved in with us. A few days after moving in, I went to go to the
office, and the dog bolted out the door. I went running after him and
corralled him back inside.

That evening, when I got home, he and I made eye contact as soon as I opened
the door. He immediately slunk off out of view. I then informed my roommates
about what happened, and they of course scolded the dog.

What is undeniable to me is that the dog felt shame. He knew he had done
wrong. I could see it in his body language and behavior - he knew it when he
saw me when I got home, and he knew it when my roommates were scolding him
(Verbally only.)

When you think about it, though, it shouldn't be a surprise that pack animals
would experience shame. That emotion would help maintain the pack hierarchy.

I think that incident, by the way, is what established me as a pack-leader to
the dog. I was new, and I don't think he automatically assumed I had
authority. I miss that dog, too. He was one of the most openly affectionate
dogs I've ever had the pleasure of being around.

------
zvikara
Too bad whatblag.com is registered at Go Daddy, where the CEO participated in
the shooting and killing of an elephant.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Go_Daddy#Animal_rights>

~~~
potatolicious
I suppose you personally vet every company, and all senior executives that
work for them, that you conduct business with?

~~~
Tichy
If the whatblag owner did not know about the elephant shooting before, he
probably does now.

~~~
CMartucci
Yes, now I know. I could've sworn my domain was registered with Media Temple,
however. I transferred it 6 months ago. Taking care of that now.

At any rate, I'm sure we all understand that guilt by association is a gross
logical fallacy, and that I in no way endorse the killing of elephants. This
must be what it feels like to be a politician...

~~~
zvikara
I was not blaming you at anything as I know most people are not aware of that
incident. I transferred my Go Daddy domains as soon as I heard about it and so
I thought you would probably like to do the same, considering the subject of
your posting.

------
willyt
I think this kind of acknowledgement of consequences behaviour has been
documented in other higher mammals too. I read a really interesting article in
the New Scientist years ago about study that showed there was cultural
knowledge in a particular troupe(?) of Bonobos in Japan. They would teach
thier young to wash fruit in the river before eating it and as a result this
particular troupe suffered from significantly lower rates of disease than
other surrounding troupes. I'll try and find it and submit the link, I think
it might be behind a paywall though.

