The Humanness of the Elephant
Elephants are well known for their intelligence, close family ties and social complexity. As in many human family structures, they live in a society with relationships radiating out from the mother-offspring bond through families, bond groups, clans, independent males and beyond to strangers. But the humanness of the elephant goes far beyond just similarities in family structures.
For instance, just as humans make specific noises related to emotion, elephants make the most magnificent trumpeting sounds when displaying emotions such as happiness, especially the younger ones while playing around in the water or jostling each other. They call out to each other when they are far apart in anticipation of a reunion, and mothers (as human mothers do) make loud calls and bellowing as a new calf is being born.
These mothers maintain this passion as the baby grows keeping watch over her offspring by using her legs or trunk to nudge the child to its feet, even carrying it if the calf cannot traverse easily across the terrain on its own. The mom will bathe her child and provide protection from the heat and sun by standing over it to provide shade. She will also consistently protect her child from predators, just as human mothers do.
As humans have a dominant hand, elephants prefer to use one tusk over the other for digging up earth and uprooting trees. If their dominant tusk becomes injured, they will go to the opposite tusk for those tasks. In addition, elephants understand the human gesture of pointing and have demonstrated self awareness. Researchers studying Asian elephants found they recognized themselves in a mirror. The only other creatures with this awareness are humans, apes and some dolphins.
Perhaps the most amazing human like behavior of elephants is their display distinctive mourning behavior. They have been known to stand in silence around a dead elephant for long periods of time, often smelling, touching or even caressing it. They have even been known to carry away a tusk or a bone of the deceased. A mother elephant may remain with a newborn that has died for days and may also experience depression afterwards, walking slowly and not keeping pace with the rest of the herd. Some elephants have been observed laying branches and grasses over the body as if it were a burial, and comfort may be given by using their trunks to caress as they make gentle chirping noises.
Elephants, like humans, really do have sharp, long memories. Elephants don't forget. They remember people who were good to them even after decades of not seeing the them and will run with excitement to greet their long lost human friend. They also remember people who have injured or abused them and act with disdain to the sight or even the smell of these perpetrators. They also can distinguish between gender and ethnicity in human voices, moving away from the voices of those who hurt them instinctively.
Unfortunately and disturbingly, it has been shown that elephants suffer much like humans:
"Like people, elephants can also become victims of past traumas and exhibit symptoms of PTSD years after the experience Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a condition that describes anxiety-based responses to life-threatening events." - G.A. Bradshaw Ph.D, Lorin Linder Ph.D
It is time that we recognize that these majestic creatures so similar to us humans are not for our entertainment and need to be left alone to live in their natural habitat.
"LOVE THEM, BUT LEAVE THEM WILD!"
