Elephant unlatches gate to save South African antelopes

[beer]

<neo> Whoa </neo>

 

[Azraele]

Wow.

 

[UNCjigga]

Ahh yes, I see my animal mind control device is working perfectly!! :evil: MUAHAHAAHAHAAAHAAAAA!!! :evil:

 

[Brutuskend]

Cool!

 

[Renob]

That was very nice of the elephant.

 

[gopunk]

Originally posted by: Renob
That was very nice of the elephant.

 

[m2kewl]

sweeet!

her next trick is to grab the shotgun and herd those fools into the pen.

 

[WinkOsmosis]

That is really amazing. It doesn't surprise me that elephants can do that, but I wonder why they would want to. I suppose they felt sorry for the antelopes. How does the matriarch elephant tell the others to come with her to the gate, then stand back to let the antelopes out?

I :heart: Elephants

 

[jaeger66]

Elephants are quite intelligent and have eerily human-like social structures.

 

[JeffreyLebowski]

Maybe this elephant was in captivity at one point, and knows what it feels like to be caged. and she might have seen someone open the gate to let her out, and she remembered.

 

[Mani]

Elephants rock.

 

[SSP]

WOW, Cool story!

 

[beer]

Originally posted by: SSP
WOW, Cool story!

 

[Schadenfreude]

Originally posted by: Elemental007

Originally posted by: SSP
WOW, Cool story!

Aah, another Farker walks the halls of ATOT . . .

 

[tcsenter]

Umm, errrr....

"The herd circled the enclosure while the capture team watched warily, thinking the herd were after lucerne (alfalfa) being used to feed the antelope," he said.

My guess is that they started for the alfalfa, then thought better of it, for some reason.

Elephants 'saving' other animals out of some moral concern for their plight. Oh boy, people will swallow anything.

 

[Angrymarshmello]

Guess Dumbo isn't a good name for those elephants

 

[yowolabi]

Originally posted by: tcsenter
Umm, errrr....

"The herd circled the enclosure while the capture team watched warily, thinking the herd were after lucerne (alfalfa) being used to feed the antelope," he said.

My guess is that they started for the alfalfa, then thought better of it, for some reason.

Elephants 'saving' other animals out of some moral concern for their plight. Oh boy, people will swallow anything.

I'm very skeptical also, but there's not a lot of explanations for that behavior if the story is accurately reported. If they went through all that for the alfalfa, why would they leave when the gate was open and not touch it? That doesn't make sense either.

 

[Judgement]

Originally posted by: Elemental007
<neo> Whoa </neo>

This seems just a tad off to me...

Its one thing to for an elephant to break through a cage to free itself or a member of its herd, but to actually have FEELINGS for the antelopes and release them by carefully unlatching the door is mind boggling.

If this story hasn't been stretched then that is one damn gifted elephant.

 

[guyver01]

We must attack these animal terrorists before they free other prisoners... they are dangerous!!!

 

[tcsenter]

I'm very skeptical also, but there's not a lot of explanations for that behavior if the story is accurately reported. If they went through all that for the alfalfa, why would they leave when the gate was open and not touch it? That doesn't make sense either.

I already provided an explanation for that. There were people watching nearby. Elephants get spooked quite easily, for reasons we don't fully understand, they can hear things we can't. A bird could have made a warning/alarm sound, all animals are smart enough to recognize the alarms of sentinel animals like birds which have a superior vantage point.

She was heading for the alfalfa, then something made her think better of it.

 

[RalphKramden]

Elephants have graveyards and mourn for their dead. It's been proven.
They're very intelligent and could very well have opened the gate for the reasons mentioned.
That's for you skepticists.

 

[djheater]

Originally posted by: tcsenter

I'm very skeptical also, but there's not a lot of explanations for that behavior if the story is accurately reported. If they went through all that for the alfalfa, why would they leave when the gate was open and not touch it? That doesn't make sense either.

I already provided an explanation for that. There were people watching nearby. Elephants get spooked quite easily, for reasons we don't fully understand, they can hear things we can't. A bird could have made a warning/alarm sound, all animals are smart enough to recognize the alarms of sentinel animals like birds which have a superior vantage point.

She was heading for the alfalfa, then something made her think better of it.

Consider, the elephant made have had a specific purpose for unlatching the gate and freeing the animals. It is beyond most casual observers not to ascribe some human emotional reason to the action, but elephants are not human. It is beyond our knowledge as to why, which is not to say that there is not a specific reason she released the animals not necessarily tied to the alfalfa. Don't "cage" yourself in one theory.

 

[tcsenter]

Elephants have graveyards and mourn for their dead. It's been proven.

Virtually all mammals will experience separation anxiety when separated from another with which they have bonded. We have an eight week old puppy that is depressed and whines a lot because she was separated from her mom and siblings.

In fact, I had a baby hamster that cried a lot because it was separated from its mother and siblings. Its brain was the size of a small pea.

 

[Yossarian]

It would have been way cooler if after rescuing the antelopes the elephants had trampled all the people and maybe gored a few.

 

[Anubis]

Originally posted by: PipBoy
It would have been way cooler if after rescuing the antelopes the elephants had trampled all the people and maybe gored a few.

hehehehe