Photo courtesy of Margaret
Friday, September 12, 2008
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A Blog designed for discussion of topics related to, but not limited to, Circus, Zoos, Animal Training, and Animal Welfare/Husbandry. Sometimes opening up the dialog is the best starting point of all. And if for nothing else when people who agree and don't agree, get together and start discussing it, it will open up a lot of peoples minds. Debate and discussion even amongst themselves opens a window where there wasn't one before.
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8 comments:
Margaret, thank you for sending this. I understand that a male elephant calf was born there at the end of last month, and had to be separated from his mother because she was confused and was attacking him. I also understand that they have now been reunited. Do you have details?
Mary Ann
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qCY7Y-AX1s4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pLTYLkOe-8c
Hi Mary Ann, here are a couple of video's of the new baby....
Mary Ann,
That aggression that is displayed often at newborn elephants is a mystery to me. I don't recall it being documented by wild elephants. The closest I have been given to an explanation is, it is like a doctor spanking a baby to get it to breath/cry. I suggest it is similar to a doctor kicking the baby up and down the hall.
Wade
Margaret, thank you for the videos.
Wade, thank you for the explanation. Have you ever personally seen this behavior?
Mary Ann
Mary Ann,
The mother of the baby that Bucky Steele had born in 1978, kick him so hard and then slammed him with her truck I thought she had killed him. I have seen it on video countless times, and it is incredibly violent. When I have asked, as I did Ryan a few weeks ago, is it a captive behavior, that is met with opposition, and the only explanation given is the one about spanking like a doctor, or not knowing what is is and being afraid. How can an animal revered for their intelligence not know what it is?
Wade
Wade - I'm am by no means an expert on elephants, but my thought would be that the captive elephants don't have the guidance of the older females that the wild ones have in a herd or family environment.
Jeannie
Jeannie,
I don't know what guidance is going to help you keep from trying to destroy you new born baby. As a rule it is an instantaneous full out assault, of which I have been on the receiving end, and it is horrible.
Wade
Wade - From what I have seen in documentaries on elephants in the wild, they are very nurturing to all in the herd and I think that is the learning environment that is missing in captivity. They see from a very young age what a baby is and how to care for it.
Jeannie
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