I wonder how much of this is due to the elephant having been shot (as opposed to being killed by a more comprehensible form of injury). The group of animals may have minimal contact with guns and not understand what happened.
From the herds perspective, they successfully escaped from the scary humans who made loud sounds but one elephant suddenly just toppled over after they escaped.
Confused they try to get her to her feet.
Later once its clear she's not coming with them, they cover her body to give it some form of protection against the elements or scavengers, if she wakes up later she might be able to catch up with the herd.
Elephants share strong emotional ties with family members. From well documented behavior it is also very likely that they have an understanding of death (and birth) as well.
You can read this report about how a herd tried to protect a baby elephant that had got stuck in the railway track. The other elephants tried to block the train, possibly aware that the would be grievously injured. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/wildlife/8021988/Seven-elep...
This area has witnessed quite a few elephant deaths over the years, on an average, five elephants are killed every year here. Elephants have been run over by trains when their herds have in the process of crossing the tracks. Usually a single animal is hit. Lone elephants who have lost their mate have also been documented to attack railway engines. This is a behavior that's not been seen prior to these elephant accidents.
From what I have heard/seen elephants treat their dead with respect. When coming back to an area where they lost one of their own they are known to caress and pick up bones and spend some time there. They seem to grasp the concept of death.
They may not have made an association between the event and their loss, but I am pretty sure they recognized the little one was no longer 'with them'. I personally feel (no facts here) they would not have left her alone if they thought she was alive.
That mammals other than humans are capable of emotion and concious thought comes as no surprise to me. Why some humans derive pleasure from inflicting unnecessary cruelty towards other beasts I will never understand.
Fascinating stuff. Is anybody familiar with the amount of ritual usually needed by archaeologists to suggest that some sort of religious tendancies might be present in a particular group of ancient hominids? The possibility that elephants could have some sort of rudimentary religious thoughts would be a great breakthrough I think.
I did a semester of 'Religious Studies' focusing primarily on non-monotheistic religions as an undergrad and when we studied the origins of religion the absolute earliest things to be considered religious was when some kind of ritual was put into the treatment of the dead.
The example of the earliest known burial on the wiki page you linked sounds like one of the specific events we studied.
"The earliest undisputed human burial dates back 90,000 years. Human skeletal remains stained with red ochre were discovered[by whom?] in the Skhul cave at Qafzeh, Israel. A variety of grave goods were present at the site, including the mandible of a wild boar in the arms of one of the skeletons."
According to Sid Meier's Civilization, civilization starts at ceremonial burial (and mining and road building, but I think that is just to help with game mechanics)
Not having grown up around animals, I'm constantly amazed by the intelligence behind some of the things my dog does. She has given me a much greater appreciation of nonhuman intelligence, and I've grown to one stories like this.
In grad school, I lived with a girl, and after some time, her boyfriend and their dog moved in with us. A few days after moving in, I went to go to the office, and the dog bolted out the door. I went running after him and corralled him back inside.
That evening, when I got home, he and I made eye contact as soon as I opened the door. He immediately slunk off out of view. I then informed my roommates about what happened, and they of course scolded the dog.
What is undeniable to me is that the dog felt shame. He knew he had done wrong. I could see it in his body language and behavior - he knew it when he saw me when I got home, and he knew it when my roommates were scolding him (Verbally only.)
When you think about it, though, it shouldn't be a surprise that pack animals would experience shame. That emotion would help maintain the pack hierarchy.
I think that incident, by the way, is what established me as a pack-leader to the dog. I was new, and I don't think he automatically assumed I had authority. I miss that dog, too. He was one of the most openly affectionate dogs I've ever had the pleasure of being around.
Yes, now I know. I could've sworn my domain was registered with Media Temple, however. I transferred it 6 months ago. Taking care of that now.
At any rate, I'm sure we all understand that guilt by association is a gross logical fallacy, and that I in no way endorse the killing of elephants. This must be what it feels like to be a politician...
I was not blaming you at anything as I know most people are not aware of that incident.
I transferred my Go Daddy domains as soon as I heard about it and so I thought you would probably like to do the same, considering the subject of your posting.
Yes I do. Like most people I do have some moral issues about it but consider it as a necessary evil. I do object to hunting as a sport, especially when endangered species are involved.
But no, I wasn't attempting to use a fallacy in support of killing elephants. I was flat-out pointing out that his stance on some killing is hypocritical.
I agree that shooting the elephant was a dick move. I'd just go so far as to extend that to chickens.
I agree that killing for sport and eating meat are both unnecessary, do harm healthwise on an individual and social scale, and produce much suffering in the world.
I think this kind of acknowledgement of consequences behaviour has been documented in other higher mammals too. I read a really interesting article in the New Scientist years ago about study that showed there was cultural knowledge in a particular troupe(?) of Bonobos in Japan. They would teach thier young to wash fruit in the river before eating it and as a result this particular troupe suffered from significantly lower rates of disease than other surrounding troupes. I'll try and find it and submit the link, I think it might be behind a paywall though.
From the herds perspective, they successfully escaped from the scary humans who made loud sounds but one elephant suddenly just toppled over after they escaped.
Confused they try to get her to her feet.
Later once its clear she's not coming with them, they cover her body to give it some form of protection against the elements or scavengers, if she wakes up later she might be able to catch up with the herd.