Rawr.

August 28, 2007 1:22 AM

Tiger Attack. Forget snakes on a plane. Tigers on an elephant is what you need to worry about.
posted by allkindsoftime (45 comments total)

Okay, I clicked, I tried to watch, but I stopped while the tigress was still slinking toward the elephants... Please tell me there's a happy ending!
posted by amyms at 1:26 AM on August 28, 2007 [1 favorite]

Hint: tigress was NOT slinking toward the elephants.
posted by allkindsoftime at 1:36 AM on August 28, 2007

Every friday, on another weblog, I go through about a hundred or so YouTube videos and post the best, or most 'interesting.' I came across this a month ago, the slo-mo version, and could hardly believe it. It sure looked real.

Thanks for clearing up what has been a nagging mystery. Sorry the one guy got his hand mangled, but originally it sure looked like it was gonna be worse than that.
posted by toma at 1:43 AM on August 28, 2007

Please tell me there's a happy ending!

Well, there's a hand job, anyway.
posted by dersins at 1:45 AM on August 28, 2007 [5 favorites]

There's only a few seconds of good kitty action in that video. Here's a better clip of the pounce in slow motion.
posted by D.C. at 1:46 AM on August 28, 2007

Apparently:

"What now happened was even more amazing. As the tigress landed on the ground Joymala quickly pinned her down with her left fore foot and tried to control it with its trunk. The tigress struggled under this weight for at least half a minute roaring, as other people in the vicinity shouted and fired shots in the air. In this commotion another attempt was made to dart it, but even this shot was off the mark. The tigress finally struggled loose and ran away."

Whoa!, if true.
posted by wsg at 1:53 AM on August 28, 2007

"... In this commotion another attempt was made to dart it, but even this shot was off the mark. The tigress finally struggled loose and ran away."

I suppose you could say it darted off.
posted by Poolio at 2:02 AM on August 28, 2007

I made the mistake of reading the comments. There are too many really fucking stupid people in this world.
posted by Ethereal Bligh at 2:12 AM on August 28, 2007

But it was worth it to see that lovely leap.

On the other hand, I made the mistake of reading the YouTube video's comments, too. Here's my favorite:

"they dont call them tigers for nothing"
posted by Ethereal Bligh at 2:17 AM on August 28, 2007 [3 favorites]

Please tell me there's a happy ending!

OK:

Early on May 19th, 2004 the forest department had received a message about a tiger, which had killed two cows near Tamuli Pathar village which is close to the boundary of Kaziranga National Park. A joint team of the Assam forest department, police, army, and the Wildlife Trust of India (an NGO) was soon combing the area with five elephants to locate the tiger. The tigress was spotted near the village, and on seeing the team she moved into a nearby paddy field. Range Officer Dharanidhar Bodo, Dr. Chaudhary along with a guard were riding the elephant, Joymala, driven by the mahout Pegu. As they moved towards the tigress, she did a mock charge. Two blanks were then fired in the air, which made her move to another field. The team followed her and when they got a clear view of her, Bodo shot at her with the dart gun. The dart missed the tigress who was so enraged by this action that she charged and took a flying leap on to the elephant's head (an adult elephant's head is at least 12 feet above the ground ). To defend himself the mahout Pegu threw the metal ankush at the tigress. The ankush missed the tigress who managed to take a swipe at Pegu. As the elephant at the same time had stepped back, the tigress could not land on the elephant's head and fell to the ground. At the same time, in the ensuing confusion both Bodo and the guard fell down. Joymala quickly pinned down the tigress with her fore foot and her trunk. For half a minute the tigress was pinned down, all the time roaring. A second attempt was made at this stage to dart her but this attempt also failed. The tigress finally made her escape. It is only because of Joymala's action that Bodo and the guard escaped being mauled. The mahout Pegu was badly lacerated and lost three fingers on his left hand.

So one poor mahout (Pegu) lost a few fingers and one brave elephant (Joymala) probably got a few good cuts, but no human or animal died as far as I could see. Tiger went away. Elephants lived. People lived -- except for three fingers. I hope Pegu and Joymala got some kind of reward.
posted by pracowity at 2:34 AM on August 28, 2007

Apparently:

"What now happened was even more amazing. As the tigress landed on the ground Joymala quickly pinned her down with her left fore foot and tried to control it with its trunk. The tigress struggled under this weight for at least half a minute roaring, as other people in the vicinity shouted and fired shots in the air. In this commotion another attempt was made to dart it, but even this shot was off the mark. The tigress finally struggled loose and ran away."

Okay, in my insular little cartooning world, when something is described offscreen in great detail without any actual visuals to back up the narrative, you use a close up of a guy pointing and shrieking, "A thousand Indians! Heavily armed and charging over the ridge!" It saves some drawing time and some wrist strain. And, in this case of this post, some bandwidth.
posted by maryh at 2:46 AM on August 28, 2007

Elephants are becoming more human by the day. I've thought for a while now that instead of trying to make intelligent machines, which strikes me as fruitless, we should selectively evolve certain species to make them more intelligent, like dolphins, chimpanzees and elephants. This would be a much more interesting kind of "artificial intelligence", since it wouldn't just be an exact imitation of certain formal kinds of intelligence like playing chess, but instead might produce a significantly different kind of living, holistic intelligence that we can interact with. It would be fascinating to see what elephants come up with if they could interact with us on an even more conscious & intentional level. But whenever I try to explain this idea to people, they look at me...funny, to say the least.

If ever I get mad rich like Bill Gates, I'll start smartening up the elephants.
posted by creasy boy at 2:57 AM on August 28, 2007

Creasy boy, you should read David Brin.
posted by Ethereal Bligh at 3:01 AM on August 28, 2007

Mr. Bligh, sadly the books in my life have reached saturation point, so any new book recommendations that come in just fall right back out. But what about David Brin specifically? Does he write about interspecies federations? And elephants? I wikipediad and didn't find any clues.
posted by creasy boy at 3:09 AM on August 28, 2007

Creasy boy, look to the rats.
posted by maryh at 3:14 AM on August 28, 2007 [1 favorite]

Oh yeah, great idea. Sentient elephants ridden by hyper-evolved chimps, allied in a common quest for revenge against the puny humans. Nothing to worry about there.
posted by Optamystic at 3:16 AM on August 28, 2007 [3 favorites]

Genetically engineering elephants for intelligence would be very tedious because their generational length is so long and they breed so slowly.

You'd do better working with drosophila.
posted by Steven C. Den Beste at 3:29 AM on August 28, 2007 [1 favorite]

Tiger went away. Elephants lived. People lived -- except for three fingers.

Whew! Thanks, pracowity!
posted by amyms at 4:45 AM on August 28, 2007

That leap was friggin' awesome, reminded me of the way my old kittah used to pounce and swipe at dogs. But terrifying instead of giggle inducing.
posted by The Monkey at 4:55 AM on August 28, 2007

Monkey, I agree--it definitely shows how well cats scale. I can go to the zoo or watch "Big Cat Diaries," and see behaviors in the big cats that I see in my "microtigers."

I still have to say, the pounce was awesome. I feel bad for the guy, though.
posted by MrGuilt at 5:17 AM on August 28, 2007

That was grrrrrrrreat!
posted by mckenney at 5:25 AM on August 28, 2007

I was hoping the tiger would fuck 'em up worse.
posted by grubi at 5:29 AM on August 28, 2007

Alright, as long as we're doing youtube animal kingdom, let me refer you to this youtube link if you have not seen it.

I don't want to give it away, but let's just say it's 8 minutes of mother nature with a suprising dénouement!
posted by cavalier at 6:10 AM on August 28, 2007 [1 favorite]

cavalier, that's a great video. I had seen it before, but it gets more and more compelling each time I watch it.
posted by amyms at 6:24 AM on August 28, 2007 [2 favorites]

Loltigers!

Tigers is hardcore, yo!

Top of the foodchain, baby!

Great video, needs more mauling.
posted by fuse theorem at 6:39 AM on August 28, 2007

creasy boy, Brin wrote a thoughtful 6 novel sci-fi series about humans "uplifting" certain species into sentience, such as dolphins and chimpanzees. Startide Rising and The Uplift War are the best in the series, IMO.


From the Amazon review of The Uplift War:

Billions of years ago, an alien race known as the Progenitors began the genetically engineered techniques by which non-intelligent creatures are given intelligence by one of the higher races in the galaxy. Once "Uplifted," these creature must serve their patron race before they, in turn, can Uplift other races. Human intelligence, which developed by itself (and brought about the Uplifting of chimpanzees and dolphins), is an affront to the aliens who plan an attack, threatening a human experiment aimed at producing the next Uplift.

Every once in a great while, he'll document new research on the topic on his blog, but it's mostly devoted to politics these days.
posted by zarq at 7:02 AM on August 28, 2007

Also, dolphin intelligence was previously featured on MeFi....
posted by zarq at 7:10 AM on August 28, 2007

Everyone who hasn't watched the Battle of Kruger video cavalier just linked, stop what you're doing and watch it. 15 million YouTube views aren't wrong. It's one of the most amazing bits of nature footage I've ever seen.
posted by mediareport at 7:19 AM on August 28, 2007

cavalier, that was amazing. The leaping tiger was a terrifying spectacle, but the three-way standoff beside the watering hole? Epic stuff.
posted by Acey at 7:26 AM on August 28, 2007

Tigers on a Life Raft are pretty scary, too.
posted by notyou at 7:47 AM on August 28, 2007 [1 favorite]

Thanks zarq. Again someone smarter and more capable than I pre-emptively stole my idea.
posted by creasy boy at 7:53 AM on August 28, 2007

Whoa, trying to dart my ass? That's a maulin'!
posted by Abiezer at 7:58 AM on August 28, 2007 [3 favorites]

The Mahout smacked the tiger at least twice before it ripped his hand off. That much composure by itself is pretty impressive, although I wouldn't personally go on a tiger hunt with anything smaller than an Uzi.
posted by mecran01 at 8:15 AM on August 28, 2007

Thanks zarq. Again someone smarter and more capable than I pre-emptively stole my idea.

Hehe. You're very welcome. It is a great concept. :)
posted by zarq at 8:34 AM on August 28, 2007

The Battle at Kruger video was awesome, enthralling. Wow.
posted by Ethereal Bligh at 8:45 AM on August 28, 2007

Somewhere there's an even more viscerally satisfying video of (I think) a leopard mauling an idiot who insists on poking it through a cage with a stick. If I wasn't lazy I'd find it.

But I am lazy.
posted by Geezum Crowe at 9:30 AM on August 28, 2007

Wow - I actually thought of linking to Battle at Kruger, believe it or not, but then I thought "naw, too lazy to look up something that I'm sure was already posted anyway."

But now that I'm looking it doesn't seem to have made it up on the blue yet.
posted by allkindsoftime at 9:36 AM on August 28, 2007

There's a fair amount of big cat on human mauling on youtube if you're sick enough to search for it. Those cats know exactly what they're doing.
posted by Burhanistan at 10:53 AM on August 28, 2007

If ever I get mad rich like Bill Gates, I'll start smartening up the elephants.

Looks like you should be checking this out, creasy.
posted by nanojath at 10:59 AM on August 28, 2007

Son of a BITCH.

For something that big, they sure can move fast.

If he was another half foot forward, it would have been all over.
posted by Relay at 12:12 PM on August 28, 2007

Aym on yor elfantz chooin yor fingerz


/groan... I couldn't. stop. myself. Must. post. this.
posted by Debaser626 at 2:05 PM on August 28, 2007

Wow, you know, Battle of Kruger and such remind me that we (humans) are such little pussies compared to the real animal kingdom.

It also helps remind me that we're so much smarter, and yet waste much of our time doing things that members of the animal kingdom simply do better.
posted by SeizeTheDay at 3:23 PM on August 28, 2007

From armed with an elephant and a stick to armed with a Range Rover and a quarter roll of TP.

[I'd almost prefer losing a finger or two.]
posted by jamaro at 4:39 PM on August 28, 2007

Okay, Geezum Crowe, here it is. I found this minutes after I found our original subject and was only slightly less impressed.

Memo to new park rangers: when you try to release a leopard back into the wild, and you've opened the cage but the cat won't leave, do not poke it with a stick. Turns out they're very nimble when they're pissed.
posted by toma at 9:18 PM on August 28, 2007

Or Geezum Crowe, there is this horrifying act of tiger revenge.
posted by madamjujujive at 12:32 AM on August 29, 2007