While this is a cool story it may ultimately be detrimental to the antelopes. They were in the pen for a breeding program(me) not to be slaughtered.
In any case, the world would be a better place if we had more elephants.

I'm tellin' you, if we keep messing with the smart animals (elephants, apes, cetaeceans) we're asking for it.

"Stay away from me, you damn dirty elephant!"

"Babar was not available for comment."

He's no Dumbo.

They do have brains that are half again bigger than ours.

good pachyderm.

"Cannot be explained scientifically" - what a load of bollocks. I'm ashamed that a trained individual said this. One scientific explanation could be: elephants are intelligent enough to have empathy for other creatures, even members of other non-threatening species. They also recognized the concept of "captivity" and subsequently remedied that. I doubt the "latches" were Yale locks or anything, and an elephant's trunk is extremely dextrous. How's that sound?

Looks like this liberation idea is catching on.

While I don't usually resort to cheap shot impressionss:

"Elephants are dedicated humanitarians."

/dubya

ARTHUR:
Consult the Book of Armaments!
BROTHER MAYNARD:
Armaments, chapter two, verses nine to twenty-one.
SECOND BROTHER:
And Saint Attila raised the hand grenade up on high, saying, 'O Lord, bless this Thy hand grenade that, with it, Thou mayest blow Thine enemies to tiny bits in Thy mercy.' And the Lord did grin, and the people did feast upon the lambs and sloths and carp and anchovies and orangutans and breakfast cereals and fruit bats and large chu--

MAYNARD:
Skip a bit, Brother.


See? No antelopes. No one was going to feast upon them.

In other news, the "matriarch of the herd" was recently sighted at a Hollywood premiere, and is rumoured to sing a musical number entitled "I Need A Real Man" in her next movie.



/ashamed of myself

It's a shame there will soon be no elephants left. Or Gorrilas. Or Rhinos. Or thousands upon thousands of other species...

"Ok boys...aim for the long hose coming out of its face.."

No Such Agency
Nice picture of Dumbo

rounded up the antelopes at their camp near Empangeni to relocate them for a breeding programme

I fail to see how the elephant was a hero. Cool, perhaps, but hero? No. See, the antelopes were being sent away to have sex. Wild 'lopey sex. The elephant freed the antelopes, allowing the chick 'lopes to more easily evade the males.

Sounds to me like whoever was on watch for that not got drunk and left the gate unlocked, then made up a cute li'l story about elephants the next morning to cover his ass.

not == night

One could almost wish aliens from space would decide that elephants represent the most promising creature on Earth, and start equipping them with trunk mounted high yield laser emitters.

'Cut our trees? Poach our herds? I think not!' (*ZAP*)

Later that night, the elephants danced, and feasted on their favorite delicacy, live antelope.
A splendid time was had by all.

Except for the antelopes.

Ecologist Brendon Whittington-Jones said: "Elephant are naturally inquisitive -- but this behaviour is certainly most unusual and cannot be explained in scientific terms".

Yes, this is something only mysticism and astrology can explain!

This can only prove that not all animals are as dumb as people think. Especially Elephants, and dolphins.

Greenpeace surrenders.

i like canteloupes.

Empangenis: mmmm.. I love the apricot ones.. my abuelita used to make pumpkin ones.. they were ok.

I think the Empangenians got caught up in a live-action Disney movie.

I was just watching the Simpsons where Bart gets a elephant.

Here's a picture of the matriarch elephant:

Didn't elephant's break into a brewery in India a while back and get drunk. Now they are letting animals out of their cages. Also they are the symbol of the Republicans.

George Bush is liberating Iraq and Afghanistan and is a Republican. I am suprised you conspiricy nuts did not make that connection yet and blame him somehow for this.

Fear the new Republican super elephants!

BABAR LIVES!

in other news, elephants are smart as hell - seriously.

(not the republican kind though...har har)

Woooo.
What a cool story.

I love that story, (said in the voice of PeeWee).

Elephants are among the smartest of all trunked, tusked animals.

next up, donkeys seen protesting and wearing tie-dyed shirts.

I already submitted this, with a much funnier headline.

Well, it's true.

elephants remember, but i'm not sure how "smart" they are. some research was done a while back w/ a baby elephant tied to a tree with a small rope. the elephant tried and tried and couldn't pull away. it eventually quit trying. years later when the elephant was much larger and stronger, the same size rope was applied to a similarly sized tree. the elephant didn't even try to escape, even when it got VERY hungry.

Anyone remember the elephant from groove tube?

Not much mention of the fact that the elephants, upon chasing the antelopes out, made a feast of the sweet alfalfa.

It sounds better if you don't mention that.

The elephants called it "Operation Liberate Antelopes"

Elephant not available for comment, but her agent said she was taking meetings with Dreamworks and Disney for rights to her story.

And yes, feel free to call me "anti-elephant" or even "elephant basher".

My only crime was to bring up the fact that the elephants, in their eagerness for the alfalfa, had to get some pesky antelopes out of the way first.

"Alfalfa is much too important a commodity to be left in the hands of antelopes" -Nana Elephant

elephants remember, but i'm not sure how "smart" they are. some research was done a while back w/ a baby elephant tied to a tree with a small rope. the elephant tried and tried and couldn't pull away. it eventually quit trying. years later when the elephant was much larger and stronger, the same size rope was applied to a similarly sized tree. the elephant didn't even try to escape, even when it got VERY hungry.

No fair picking on a special ed elephant...

It's interesting that for many people, facts don't lead to conclusions. People pick a political party, so uhe pressupposed conclusions are already in place, and any facts that support it are highlighted, and those that don't are simply tossed out.

That's not rational thinking.

Faethe - hahaha

Actually, I think that's the way most circus elephants are kept so passive. Sad, but true.

Jovial -

I love elephants, as long as they love me. Dunno if you guys heard - here in Orlando, we had an elephant go into labor at Animal Kingdom (after 2 years) on Sunday - something happened and the calf died while still in the womb.

The story was on Channel 6 - this is a link to channel 6 - the story has not been posted yet - was on the nightly news...

News Channel Six

Antelope smell like goats + Elephants have large noses

Do the math

In that story, the humans are the villains (breeding program notwithstanding) and the elephants are the heroes. I thought WE were the enlightened species!?!?

Humans suck.. Us elephants should have evolved before you dumb warmonging monkeys!

04-08-03 07:01:01 PM Jovial_cynic


Such conditioning works just fine on human beings, too.

The problem with getting a perspective on animal intelligence, I find, is that it is automatic to do so by that most familiar benchmark by which all things I percieve are measured, namely myself.

Will there ever be a humpback whale composer of classical music . . human music? Not bloody likely. Has there ever been a Mozart of humpback whale singing? I can not tell, I'm not physically equipped to fully appreciate whale song.