Elephants: Foe.
October 27, 2006 8:55 PM   Subscribe

"All across Africa, India and parts of Southeast Asia, from within and around whatever patches and corridors of their natural habitat remain, elephants have been striking out, destroying villages and crops, attacking and killing human beings..." "...young male elephants in Pilanesberg National Park and the Hluhluwe-Umfolozi Game Reserve in South Africa have been raping and killing rhinoceroses..."
posted by ®@ (11 comments total)

This post was deleted for the following reason: previously



 
double
posted by Hlewagast at 9:02 PM on October 27, 2006


dammit, and I checked the tags, too!
posted by ®@ at 9:05 PM on October 27, 2006


tusk tusk
posted by Kraftmatic Adjustable Cheese at 9:11 PM on October 27, 2006


But a worthy double. It's a great article.
posted by homunculus at 9:28 PM on October 27, 2006


I agree with homunclus. I haddn't seen this before and it's very interesting.
posted by delmoi at 9:29 PM on October 27, 2006


Since <img> tags are disabled see this scolding.
posted by MonkeySaltedNuts at 10:05 PM on October 27, 2006


Elephants flipping?

Just a few days ago I was wondering whether whales exhibit any collective hostility towards humans, thanks to the damage caused by hunting, sonar etc. One might think that with their huge brains and high-bandwith communication they could eventually connect the dots. But I guess it doesn't necessarily take complete awareness of the underlying causes of your home being destroyed and family being killed to make it piss you off.
posted by Anything at 10:16 PM on October 27, 2006


Oh geez is it EleFilter Day again already?
posted by mwhybark at 10:46 PM on October 27, 2006


From the article and the previous thread:

In the past 12 years, elephants have killed 605 people in Assam, a state in northeastern India, 239 of them since 2001; 265 elephants have died in that same period,

Which tells me that they are winning. And may I be the first to say; good. We have been at the top of the food chain for too long. We have grown complacent and treat the entire world as if it's our buffet. It's good to know that out there, there are things, big things, that are not willing to be on the menu.

I really hate, I mean really, really hate that it's possible that elephants could conceivably go extinct in my lifetime. These are intelligent and [normally] passive creatures who we have hunted to the brink. As much as I hate the loss of human life, I have to be the guy to say that says, 'you know what? We are waging a war against this species, and we have to be prepared to take losses.'

We have been far to caviler about taking animals. Be it for food, or even worse, something as stupid as imaginary aphrodisiacs. [particularly when real world pills exist which do the same thing.] This does not just apply to elephants, but to rhinos and whales as well. These are animals that, once gone, will. not. come. back.

As far as I'm concerned, humans need a serious lesson in humanity. We may top the food chain, but we need to realize that there are creatures that deserve far more respect then we are giving them
posted by quin at 10:49 PM on October 27, 2006


judging from what i've read and seen about the histoy of humans and elephants (including their relatives, wooly mammoths), i hope the elephants win. snuffalove power!
posted by waxboy at 11:36 PM on October 27, 2006


I don't know if you're aware of this, but the elephant population has tripled in the last six months.
posted by sparkletone at 12:16 AM on October 28, 2006


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