
African elephants are migrating to safety, telling each other how to get there - sohkamyung
https://qz.com/1203988/african-elephants-are-migrating-to-safety-and-telling-each-other-how-to-get-there/
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dalbasal
This is tangental....

I've read/heard a bunch about "rewilding" as a concept over the last year,
introducing mostly megafaunal populations to their historic ranges, sometimes
very historic. Hippos, lions and hyenas in scotland for a particularly quirky
example. There are some very tentative efforts currently to reintroduce bison,
lynxes and some other species to western europe.

Anyway... 350,000 wild african elephants. Declines notwithstanding, it's
amazing that such a population still exists. Consider how much impact a herd
of elephants have on human interests.. agriculture or whatnot. Imagine how
hard it would be to get buy-in for a dozen elephants in spain. The african
savannah's megafaunal systems still exist! They really are an amazing thing to
still have. It's the system we came from.. most of our most ancient art is
about them. The first famous french painting features extinct and extirpated
megafauna, lions for example.

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dennyabraham
It's crazy that we're talking about genetically re-engineering mammoths to
help revitalize cold climates when we have such trouble preserving these
elephant populations.

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dalbasal
erm... Idk. I see this as similar to the "we need to solve poverty before we
can go to mars" issues. Things just work independently of one another.

On one hand we have conservation, on the continent with the biggest poverty
and governance issues. Wilderness, land-use & habitat issues are key issues.
Outside of the artic, there just aren't many habits to support those kinds of
far ranging species. African land tracts are unique.

Elsewhere we have rewilding, in its infancy. The US seems to be transitioning
from one to the other. Europe is very slowly opening up to the idea.

Elsewhere we have some eccentric ideas about engineered hybrids using paleo-
genetics, like the idea of bringing back mammoths. The ecological implications
are complete unknowns. It's more of a genetics science project, with
futuristic zoo implications. It's far from being a wilderness question at all.
Resources don't compete.

Projects like the Russian Pleistocene Park don't really need mammoths. They've
had a lot success using "closest available substitute" species instead of
extinct ones. Maybe African or Asian elephants can (or can be bred to)
tolerate that kind of cold and eat local plants.

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DamnYuppie
As a bow hunter I am keenly aware of the prowess of animals to know their
environment and all its dangers, humans at the top of the list. These animals
are wired to survive and adapt. When people are surprised that they exhibit
these behaviors it is much more a condemnation of their lack of understanding
of nature then it is a novel or new behavior on the part of the animals. These
animals exist in a life and death struggle every day.

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Xylakant
The effect of elephants (or generally wildlife) being aware of where they are
in danger is starkly visible in South Africas Krüger National Park: It's right
on the border to Mozambique. On the South African side, wildlife is abundant
and fairly well visible, but once you cross over the border, there's no
visible wildlife. Some elephant droppings on the road, that's all.

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zoom6628
Seems humans having a tough time these days. Elephants better at directions,
goldfish have a longer attention span, and orcas are better at mimicking
speech. And given that humans (so far) the only species to knowlingly destroy
its own habitat, one has to wonder if climate change isnt our own reward.

Having gotten that off my chest its an intersting article about group
learning.

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cronjobma
I wonder if having for-profit organisations/startups who's core mission it is
to protect these fantastic animals would be more successful vs non-profits or
government projects. Not necessary to make a buck, but in many cases, for-
profit organisations get more done because of the constant pressure they feel
to perform.

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Can_Not
> for-profit organisations get more done because of the constant pressure they
> feel to perform.

How is it possible that changing the primary existential goal from "save
animals" to "make profits" will lead to more efficient animal saving rather
than loss of efficiency in animal saving for the sake of profit? That seems
like the exact opposite of what would happen.

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toasterlovin
If saving the animals = more profit, then more animals will be saved. That's
the argument, at least, not saying it's feasible.

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Can_Not
All you did was repeat the argument without adding any plausible explanation.

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toasterlovin
Is it really necessary to explain that people desire to enrich themselves,
therefore they seek profit, therefore they will do things which resulted in
profit?

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Can_Not
It necessary to explain when you magically hand-wave in that it's going to
benefit the environment and natural animal populations when all evidence and
logic indicates the opposite.

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crpatino
I am surprised that nobody has raised this issue?

If elephants are smart enough to recognize an enemy, avoid it, and warn other
elephants that have not seen this enemy first hand... do they qualify as
people?

They certainly seem at least as smart as dolphins, and their trunks allow for
a crude form of tool manipulation that dolphins lack. We humans define our
personhood in terms not just of raw intelligence, but also by our ability to
modify our environments, so...

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joshmarlow
Tangentially related, but if this train of thought interests you, you may be
interested in the "Great Ape Personhood" project. From [0]:

> Great ape personhood is a movement to extend personhood and some legal
> protections to the non-human members of the Hominidae or great ape family:
> chimpanzees, bonobos, gorillas, and orangutans.

[0] -
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_ape_personhood](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_ape_personhood)

~~~
posterboy
This is great. Finally people should accept me how I am.

