Elephants losing it?

Nanda · Post by **Nanda** » Tue Jul 10, 2007 1:55 pm

This article is long, but well worth the read. Some strange shit is going down in Africa...

These were not isolated incidents. 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. In fact, these attacks have become so commonplace that a new statistical category, known as Human-Elephant Conflict, or H.E.C., was created by elephant researchers in the mid-1990’s to monitor the problem. In the Indian state of Jharkhand near the western border of Bangladesh, 300 people were killed by elephants between 2000 and 2004. 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, the majority of them as a result of retaliation by angry villagers, who have used everything from poison-tipped arrows to laced food to exact their revenge. In Africa, reports of human-elephant conflicts appear almost daily, from Zambia to Tanzania, from Uganda to Sierra Leone, where 300 villagers evacuated their homes last year because of unprovoked elephant attacks.

Still, it is not only the increasing number of these incidents that is causing alarm but also the singular perversity — for want of a less anthropocentric term — of recent elephant aggression. Since the early 1990’s, for example, young male elephants in Pilanesberg National Park and the Hluhluwe-Umfolozi Game Reserve in South Africa have been raping and killing rhinoceroses; this abnormal behavior, according to a 2001 study in the journal Pachyderm, has been reported in ‘‘a number of reserves’’ in the region. In July of last year, officials in Pilanesberg shot three young male elephants who were responsible for the killings of 63 rhinos, as well as attacks on people in safari vehicles. In Addo Elephant National Park, also in South Africa, up to 90 percent of male elephant deaths are now attributable to other male elephants, compared with a rate of 6 percent in more stable elephant communities.

K-Dawg · Post by **K-Dawg** » Tue Jul 10, 2007 2:05 pm

I for one welcome our new elephant overlords.

Shishio · Post by **Shishio** » Tue Jul 10, 2007 2:10 pm

Even if they rape you?

Nyke · Post by **Nyke** » Tue Jul 10, 2007 2:15 pm

THE ELEPHANTS ARE REBELLING!

*runs, jumps out window*

Frankodragon · Post by **Frankodragon** » Tue Jul 10, 2007 2:36 pm

Then dolphins will take over the world just like on that Simpsons episode.

Rkolter · Post by **Rkolter** » Tue Jul 10, 2007 2:47 pm

Elephants practice beastiality; rhinos no longer horny. Details at 11.

Levi-chan · Post by **Levi-chan** » Tue Jul 10, 2007 3:01 pm

Whatcha gonna do with all that junk
All that junk inside that trunk

Vorticus · Post by **Vorticus** » Tue Jul 10, 2007 3:11 pm

I, for one, am glad I don't live anywhere near any elephants.

Grabmygoblin · Post by **Grabmygoblin** » Tue Jul 10, 2007 4:05 pm

good article Nanda!

poor elephants. when confronted with the horrific human tragedies of war, we understandably forget the hurt caused on the local environment, but we should keep in mind that many endangered critters get caught in the crossfire.

I didn't agree with those last couple paragraphs condemning zoos, I think zoos if managed well are bastions of conservationism and education, and should be supported wholeheartedly. in Syracuse we have a huge elephant pen for the small herd, and I think they are just as happy as any of their wild cousins. if kept in a small pen the way they used to be, I'd be furious, but by keeping them in a huge pen not only are they happy but visitors are more interested, since the elephants RUN around, obviously enjoying themselves.

I'm always questioning and debating if there is some sort of higher intelligent force in our lives, subtly nudging us one way or another, letting itself be known through tiny coincidences and flat out miracles. murderous, raping elephants to me would fall under a larger strange coincidence, either a larger intelligence warning us we have misinterpreted that domination of earth and all her creatures thing and that we need to start changing our behavior ASAP... or it could be just smart critters that have evolved awfully close to our level of intelligence reacting as we would to someone coming in and nearly wiping us off the face of the planet.

Edge of Existence
IUCN Red List Species
WWF
Wiki List
Wiki Critically Endangered List

[AlmightyPyro] · Post by **[AlmightyPyro]** » Tue Jul 10, 2007 10:44 pm

...have been raping and killing rhinoceroses...

WTF?!

*draws an arrow between elephants and rhinos on his list of extreme animals, moving elephants to the number 3 spot, right below moose and Big Foot.*

Jackhass · Post by **Jackhass** » Tue Jul 10, 2007 11:06 pm

Sorry guys...I made the mistake of telling them what piano keys are made of and they got a little upset.

Killbert-Robby · Post by **Killbert-Robby** » Wed Jul 11, 2007 2:06 am

*Grabs his shotgun*

Time to take out the trash.

*Ch-Chikk*

*Walks out of the door*

.............

Dear God it's raping a RHINO.

*Flees back indoors*

Rkolter · Post by **Rkolter** » Wed Jul 11, 2007 3:41 am

grabmygoblin wrote: I'm always questioning and debating if there is some sort of higher intelligent force in our lives, subtly nudging us one way or another, letting itself be known through tiny coincidences and flat out miracles. murderous, raping elephants to me would fall under a larger strange coincidence, either a larger intelligence warning us we have misinterpreted that domination of earth and all her creatures thing and that we need to start changing our behavior ASAP... or it could be just smart critters that have evolved awfully close to our level of intelligence reacting as we would to someone coming in and nearly wiping us off the face of the planet.

Or, it could be aliens. Aliens beaming porn into the elephants minds, causing them to go insane with lust.

Noise Monkey · Post by **Noise Monkey** » Wed Jul 11, 2007 6:57 am

elephants got weird taste

Nervous Spy · Post by **Nervous Spy** » Wed Jul 11, 2007 7:47 am

In potentially related news, popular TV/movie personality M. Mouse suffered a fatal accident today, while crouching down to pick up a dropped contact lens. Crime scene investigators commented they had "never seen anything quite like this." The Court of Inquiry have preliminarily ruled it a "death by bizarre misadventure."

Shishio · Post by **Shishio** » Wed Jul 11, 2007 7:58 am

That's fantastic.

Noise Monkey · Post by **Noise Monkey** » Wed Jul 11, 2007 8:29 am

Spy, it sure has been nice having you around. You scar us mentally in the most pleasant ways.

Sketchywallflowr · Post by **Sketchywallflowr** » Wed Jul 11, 2007 9:04 am

It makes you wonder what in the hell is going on in the elephant's heads. I mean, Rhinos are pretty badass. Next they'll be carrying picket signs and piercing themselves all over. And one day, O Lord, the reckoning shall begin. Ye verily.

Man, what does God have against Africa?

Noise Monkey · Post by **Noise Monkey** » Wed Jul 11, 2007 10:37 am

Don't blame God for this. Blame Ganesha!

Rkolter · Post by **Rkolter** » Wed Jul 11, 2007 11:17 am

It's the rhino's fault for dressing to seduce elephants.