Nahh man, it’s not fucking graffiti. That’s a sign.
elephants category
‘If you look at the history of the American presidency, you would conclude that Darwin got it exactly backward.’ — Henry Adams
Elephants are evolving smaller tusks due to pressure from hunting and poaching for ivory, according to conservation experts.
The average tusk size of African elephants has halved since the mid-19th century. A similar effect has been spotted in the Asian elephant population in India.
Researchers say it is an example of Darwinism in action, caused by the mass slaughter of dominant male elephants - but whereas evolution normally takes place over thousands of years, these changes have occurred within 150 years.
Zoologists at Oxford University fear that poaching and hunting of the largest male elephants, which also have the largest tusks, has changed the natural breeding behaviour of these animals. Their research has shown that the hunting of these large males for their ivory allows smaller males with shorter tusks to produce more calves. Over time the average tusk size decreases.
Actually…
Conservationists today hailed the socialite Paris Hilton, who was convicted of drink driving earlier this year, for apparently trying to highlight the problem of binge-drinking elephants in north-eastern India.
Activists said the celebrity endorsement would raise awareness of the plight of pachyderms that got drunk on farmers’ homemade rice beer and went on the rampage.
Last month, six wild elephants that broke into a farm in the state of Meghalaya were electrocuted after discovering and drinking the potent brew before uprooting an electricity pylon.
“There would have been more casualties if the villagers hadn’t chased them away,” Hilton was quoted as saying in Tokyo last week according to a report posted on the World Entertainment News Network website. “And four elephants died in a similar way three years ago. It is just so sad.”
{ The Guardian | Continue reading }
In a Nov. 13 story, The Associated Press incorrectly reported that Paris Hilton was praised by conservationists for highlighting the problem of binge-drinking elephants in northeastern India. Lori Berk, a publicist for Hilton, said she never made any comments about helping drunken elephants in India.
{ AP/SF Chronicle }
‘No matter how much you feed a wolf, an elephant still has bigger balls.’ — Russian Saying
{ Circus elephant, 1920s | General graphic Agency/Getty Images }
Forgetting Is an Essential Part of Life
Every one of us would like to have a better memory, but would it really be advantageous to have a memory like an elephant? Does an elephant really have a good memory?
Elephants certainly have large brains, which may increase their memory capacity and aid their complex patterns of communication. It is not easy to measure with precision the memory span of an elephant; many working elephants can learn and remember a large number of commands. They also appear to recognise many humans, as well as individuals of their own species – even when separated from them for decades.
In the wild, herds of elephants tend to follow similar paths over the years, suggesting that memories are passed down through the generations. It is said that elephant herds have specific burial places and that they help their sick and infirm to return there to die. Elephant remains are often found in groups near water sources; however, this may be simply because malnourished elephants seek water in the hope of improving their condition. Elderly elephants gravitate towards the same water sources when their teeth become worn, as water plants are softer to eat, and many die there near the remains of others. So herds may remember the locations of water sources, but not primarily because of any elephant remains that may be there.
Some elephants have better memories than others. In 2001, a research team led by Karen McComb studied 21 elephant families over a seven-year period in Amboseli National Park, Kenya. They found that the matriarchs leading the herds develop strong “social” memories that enable them to distinguish friends from foes by smell and by contact calls; the older the matriarch, the better her skills. The research confirmed that the better a matriarch is at recognising friends, the more time other family members have to feed and breed in safety and the more calves they produce.
So do elephants have better memories than other animals? One animal whose memory might rival that of the elephant is the Clark’s nutcracker bird of the high mountain regions of the American West, which hoards food for the winter. In the autumn, each bird stashes away up to 100,000 pine seeds in thousands of different caches, with only five to 10 seeds in each to minimise squirrel theft. The hiding places are dotted around an area of 20km2. Some six months later, the bird finds all these stockpiles, even if the sites are a metre deep in snow.
I think we can agree that elephants – particularly the matriarchs – do have good memories. Whether they deserve their status as the memory experts of the animal kingdom is doubtful: they have a serious rival in Clark’s nutcracker bird. The word “birdbrain”, implying limited intelligence, may not be such an insult after all.
related { Conservationists today hailed the socialite Paris Hilton, who earlier this year was convicted of drink driving, for apparently trying to highlight the problem of binge-drinking elephants in north-eastern India. | The Guardian }
Good to Feel Half Clean
photo { Jeremy Tucker }
Pistol, Pavement, No T.V.
strummer126: Fucking asshole said this was going to be a video of an elephant sticking its trunk up a rhino’s asshole. Fucking Rickrolled again today. fuck this shit.
Ask a wildlife expert
Masturbating an elephant in the cause of science isn’t an easy job – just ask wildlife expert Dr Thomas Hildebrandt.
Just touching a jumbo penis – they measure more than 5 feet/1.5m when aroused – can have painful consequences as German scientist Dr Hildebrandt reveals: “One guy I know got a black eye from being hit by an elephant’s penis. When you touch an elephant there it starts to flick backwards and forwards and it’s so strong it can knock you off your feet. It’s such a strong movement.”
Dr Hildebrandt, a world expert on elephant and rhino reproduction demonstrates how it should be done in BBC2’s Horizon: The Elephant’s Guide To Sex screened on March 20. His mission is to help endangered species get into the mood for love and give them a hand - quite literally – to boost their dwindling populations.
related { Differences between African and Asian elephants }
photo { Garry Winogrand, Hand Feeling Elephant, 1960-1967 }
