ELEPHANTS

These immense and soulful creatures, one of ‘natures perfections’ view the world around them through knowing eyes. Their 45lb hearts pound with compassion and love for their families. Wearing wrinkled expressions: fold upon fold of intelligence suggest that there is far more to elephants than meets the human eye. Inside those huge and noble heads, a complex and intricate organ resides which makes me ask like many others before me, ‘do elephants surpass others in wit and mind?’

We all admire magical elephants for their colossal size and incredible strength. I have come to love and respect them for their intelligence, remarkable memories and the fact that despite their formidable size, they display deep feelings of love and empathy.

Here’s a thought: when thinking about the intelligence of animals, do we compare elephants to other animals or do we compare them to humans?

Their brains, like humans are convoluted, and the temporal lobe associated to memory is highly developed. Many of the traits portrayed in humans, nature has duplicated in these large and intelligent animals. In fact, these sentient creatures reveal to us all the goodness in creation intent on survival and not destruction.

Jumbo sized mirrors are used to test whether elephants self-awareness mirrors humans.

Elephants can recognize their own reflections in a mirror. Elephants are far more distantly related to humans than apes are and yet they seem to have developed similar social and and cognitive capacities as us. Elephants live in complex social societies thus making intelligence a part of the picture.

These parallels between humans and elephants suggest a convergent cognitive evolution possibly related to complex sociality and cooperation.”

Do elephants have long memories?

The matriarch, the oldest and wisest in the herd offers us a breathtaking glimpse into her wisdom and understanding which she has learnt over many years from her elders. She controls the daily activities of the herd and her remarkable memory comes to the fore during times of crisis. She will dig deep, remembering what she has learnt many years before and lead her herd over a great distance to find food and water in severe droughts.

This video clip shows the reunion between Jenny and Shirley after being separated 25 years earlier. Although they are not related, their paths had crossed and watching the joy and love at their reunion, I hate to think how traumatized the separation must have been for both of them. Do they have the ability to recognise each other? Of course they do, no matter how many years have passed. They remember.

The harmony of the herd depends of her skills which include complex communication, remembering different individuals smells and voices. They display deep feelings of compassion and an advanced sense of altruism towards their own and other species, including us humans showing signs of distress. Do elephants understand the concept of humans pointing at something?

These sentient creatures ooze with personality and intelligence: a large mass of bubbling exuberance, lifting their trunks to sniff the air, because they can. Like humans, they grieve deeply for loved ones, suffering deep depressions and shedding tears. They use sticks as a means to scratch those itchy places they cannot reach and according to Dame Daphne Sheldrick, they have a wicked sense of humour, and she says once you get to know them well, you can see that they even smile when they are having fun. Elephants continue to amaze us, showing their ability to paint, even though it is said they take physical instructions from their mahouts while doing so.

I care deeply about elephants, respecting and revering the fact that not only are they the largest land mammal, they are almost emotionally human. Having learnt about their love and compassion, let us unite as one and show them that us humans are also possessed with an infinite compassion towards our earthly companions. Let us allow them to live as nature intended.

My first recollection of seeing a herd of elephants was on my 5th birthday. They were large and grey and not at all like the ‘Dumbo’ images that I had in my head. My yellow haired doll with her unblinking blue eyes proved to keep my interest more than the elephants.

Looking back, I had not appreciated the freedom of space, the warm breeze caressing my hair and the warmth of the wooden slats toasting my bum and bare legs. There I was, sitting on the floor of a viewing platform overlooking a water hole in the heart of the Hwange Game Reserve. The sleeping water reflected the gold trimmed clouds scudding happily across the painted sky. Noisy doves policed the trees, their melodious calls filling the late afternoon. Small midges floated and whirled around my face… it was perfect, and yet I kept playing with my doll.

The peaceful afternoon erupted with trumpeting bellows as a small herd of elephants bathed in a warm bronzed glow emerged from the deep shadows in the bush. I did not watch for more than a few minutes as they did a lumbering shuffle, kicking up clouds of dust making for the water hole. Enormous, grey and stately: and they were just…there. I did not have any idea on how privileged I was.

Now I have grown and so has my passion for these majestic and gentle giants. I will never take them for granted again. I have joined this fight against poaching to spread awareness of their plight, and to make sure our children’s children will be able to see them in the wild.

I would dearly love to be on the ground… but I am not. I am only doing what I can from afar… but I do do various trips back to Africa through all the different links I have found on the internet, and tonight I am going to take you back to Hwange…help spread the word.. these elephants need friends.

The Presidential Elephant Conservation Project – Hwange

Memories and magical elephants

DO NOT TAKE ELEPHANTS FOR GRANTED