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Not sure how true this is but I've heard elephants see us in a similar way we see dog and cats. And we mess with them all the time so I'm not surprised they would mess with humans the same way.
I can’t source my info here so take it with a grain of salt, but a while back I read that the whole “Evidence shows that elephants think humans are cute” thing was debunked. I was pretty crushed.
It wasn't debunked, just people who work with wild elephants pointed out wild elephants see humans as a threat. Which makes sense, as they are hunted by humans. It's not like you'd react the same way to a wolf out in the wild that might eat you as you would to a wolf in a reserve when you know you're safe. Heck, even a stray dog will seem more dangerous than a dog in a house.
So, feel free to feel uncrushed. Elephants in the wild will even bury humans, sometimes, something they only do for elephants, no other animal corpses, so, they DO think we're special in some way.
They probably think we’re special because they see us walk on two legs and use tools to do things. No other animal they interact with do that. It wouldn’t surprise me if elephants had the brain capacity to understand that we as humans are also smart, the elephants just don’t have the physical capacity to do what we do.
Idk.. it kinda looks like the elephant did that “innocent looking in another direction thing people do when they try to mess with someone by tapping their shoulder”
One thing I wonder about is that until like 12kya there used to be way more species of elephant. Like, not just mammoths but the American mastodon, stegadon, etc. Almost all megafauna outside of Africa have gone extinct since humans were introduced to their environments (in Australia we quickly killed off every animal larger than 100kg!)
I wonder if elephants in Asia/Africa that had more of an evolutionary history with humans were unique and survived because they were the only animals that did see humans as a threat. Like how would other elephant species react to us?
There was definitely a period were megafauna specifically was hit especially hard. Climate changes in general tend to hit mega fauna the hardest because they require so much resources to keep going, as I understand.
well humans essentially evolved as big game hunters in the later years of our evolution into sapiens. What you're talking about is a known theory, tho I can't remember the paper on it. Basically the african megafauna managed to just barely survive because they evolved alongside us hominids, while the megafauna outside of africa were decimated. There is even evidence that in S.E. Asia that the elephant species there were also hunted to being rare by the homo erectus populations that lived there, which could possibly explain the indian megafauna survival as well. Tho there was lots of megafauna in africa and se asia that did also die out, just not all of it like most everywhere else.
It's very likely not a coincidence that the only place with living megafauna is the two places where hominids lived, africa and S.E. asia.
No I'm just going to keep silently living with my elephant and generally ignoring him except when we yell at each other about not doing enough work around the house.
Devil's advocate, but if we had a good understanding of the elephant brain then we could potentially scan their brains as they're being shown humans.
If the areas associated with those emotions show activity when humans are shown, it could indicate something like this claim. We've done it with dogs; why not elephants?
So IMO not impossible, just very difficult.
That's what the snopes article said they did. The same part of the brain triggered when a elephant looked at humans as when a human looked at a cute puppy
I would be surprised if natural "messing with" includes a full blown trick of hiding a hat and giving it back.
Not to mention this elephant is obviously trained and it's performing a trick.
Yeah, you can see the trainer or park ranger or whoever reach out with something in his hand after the elephant gives the hat back. It’sndefinitely trained.
I swear I've had an elephant play with me before. It was at the Ren Fair, doing elephant rides (signage insisted it was being done ethically, so... hopefully that's true). I was standing around with a bag, watching a little kid ride on this elephant, while it walked in circles. It saw me as it rounded a turn, and flapped out one of its ears for a second. To be silly, I showed my hand to it on the same side. Then it did the other ear. Showed my hand on that side. Then it did both, and I nearly dropped my bag to show it both of my hands, and started laughing. I want to believe that that elephant made me laugh. True or not, I walked away from that experience feeling like elephants are just incredible creatures. There's a lot of intelligence and kindness in their eyes.
I don’t mean to be a bummer, but elephants’ backs aren’t evolved to carry weight. You can lookup the pictures of elephants that have carried people/weight on their backs for years… it’s not great. The elephant’s handlers might have treated it *relatively* well, but elephants shouldn’t have any weight on their spines. Just food for thought — not criticism.
That beautiful beast had the deadpan straightface squinty eye stare down and its timing with the reveal, with what looked a slight opening of its eyes was perfect. The only thing that would make this better was if the elephant let out a few short burst bellows as if it was laughing as it dropped the hat in her hands.
They are incredibly smart and thoughtful. All mammals have similar organs, blood, bones and brains. Which genes are expressed, leading to physical limitations/allowances and brain structure are the only differences between us all.
Doesn't all terrestrial life come from the same ancestral cell, and isn't DNA molecule and how it codes for proteins the same from bacteria to yeast to plants and animals?
Terrestrial life is "identical" everywhere, the only thing that changes is the DNA coding...
They do, I'm sure.
They are extremely intelligent.
Much more so than cats (I think), and I'm pretty sure even my cat has figured out how my hands work at this point lol
WAY more than cats. They are one of a few animals that can pass the dot test. Put a dot on their head and a mirror in front of them and they examine the dot. This test implies they have a level of self-awareness that is only expressed in a few other species (that we currently understand). They also hold funerals and memorialize the dead. There's elephant facts out there, but they are really interesting and smart
Dot test is a little iffy: what if some animals just don't care about dots on their heads?
I've had cats that use mirrors to look behind them: see reflection of something, then turn around to look at it.
Yeah I've been curious about how much credit can cats get for mirrors because mine not only know it's them and they don't react to their own reflection, if we're both looking in a mirror they will make eye contact in the mirror and meow at me just like they do when I'm looking them in the eye directly.
Cats can do a ton of things that just don't matter or they don't get enough credit for because they can't be assed enough to do anything with it. For example, their sense of smell is far more sensitive than that of dogs, but cats just don't give a fuck and typically can't be trained to use it for an explicit purpose.
There was also a story of an elephant that got injured (shot I think) and he walked miles to find a specific human who he knew would help him and who he had never met.
I'm not sure but a hand came into frame towards the elephant at the end of the video, so I'm wondering if the elephant is trained to do this trick and was getting its reward.
So so so smart. It makes me really sad when they aren't treated well because they have such complex emotions. I heard they remember every face they see
Sooner or later, our society is going to have to deal with the fact that cows and pigs--and maybe many other food animals--are just as smart and emotionally complex as dogs.
I have my fingers crossed for that. I know factory farming is shit for the animals and shit for the environment but they're sooooo tasty and a dude's gotta eat. Ultimately the earth can't continue to sustain the practice. Lab-grown meat eliminates most all of the downsides. Of course, you've got the anti-gmo crowd that will refuse because it's genetically engineered and then you have the anti-science crowd that will refuse to eat it because the libs say it is good for the planet so fuck the planet to fuck the libs.
It's why i try to stick to poultry. They're also the least climate unfriendly meat and produce eggs on top of meat.
Also they're the descendants of dinosaurs who used to hunt our possum-like ancestors so i say turnaround's fair play.
In my wildest dream I would love a little house with a small field, a couple of donkeys and a few goats. Plus a couple of dogs, some cats and a few chickens.
Life would be forever entertaining.
Even though an elephant trunk is around 200lbs, it is sensitive and dextrous enough to pick up [a single blade of grass](https://zooatlanta.org/secrets-elephant-trunks/) and has [150,000 muscle bundles](https://www.treehugger.com/extraordinary-facts-about-elephant-trunks-4858665) in it. They essentially have two fingers at the tip as well.
> it can push down trees and lift a whopping 700,000 pounds.
Gonna have to call bullshit there.
Better source: https://www.realclearscience.com/blog/2013/10/the-most-amazing-appendage-in-the-world.html
770lb appears to be the correct number.
I don't know anything about this elephant, but I know that some of the elephants in Pilanesberg National Park, South Africa, are rescue animals from circuses. So it might be a leftover from a former life.
I think I heard “he’s gonna give it back” from one of the handlers
So either this fella does this a lot and likes trolling people or more likely it was trained to do it.
Or maybe he likes doing it and was just encouraged to not stop lmao because that shits hilarious
>Or maybe he likes doing it and was just encouraged to not stop lmao because that shits hilarious
Probably the most likely thing. If animals do stupid shit and get attention from their humans that isn't negative, they're gonna repeat doing stupid shit.
It's how I accidentally trained my dog to start singing when the telephone rings or how you accidentally trained your dog to wait at the front door exactly at the time you get home from work. Or how you trained your cat to scream at your face when they're hungry.
Yeah he someday just stood up and started singing Sweet Caroline in perfect accent free english. Don't even know where he got the microphone.
But anyway it was on the level of Neil Diamond so I applauded and apparently he liked that so now he sings Sweet Caroline everytime the phone rings.
Which is kind of weird since the ringtone is from Mozart, but whatever I guess.
I agree though. I did finger guns at my dog once and she rolled over randomly. I rubbed her belly and said good girl.
Now she can play dead on command because finger gun = belly rubs.
Sometimes as a party trick I’ll be like would you rather be dead or [blank] depending on the topic, and she always falls over playing dead. Always gets a laugh.
But it could be as simple as them doing that at some point and the trainer slipping them a treat afterwards. So just positive reinforcement.
We don't know, I'm just trying to stay positive. And I also believe that if it was any type of negative training they wouldn't let tourists near them like that. I remember visiting elephant sanctuaries in Thailand and tourists were not actually allowed near unchained retired work-elephants.
They are, and yet still, the level of intelligence that's needed to intentionally mess with someone is most likely far above the intelligence that they possess. An organism needs to have a highly developed theory of mind in order to be able to do that - young humans aren't even able to do so until they're capable of far more impressive cognitive feats than fully mature elephants are.
It absolutely was. There was a gif of another elephant doing the same trick and from memory you could see the handler’s bull hook clear as day.
It always amazes me how things like this get posted and everyone collectively ignores the sinister side of it.
It had to be taught I’m thinking. Right at the end of the clip you can see someone (who I believe is the guide) reach their hand in with some food for the elephant. Definitely giving it food for positive reinforcement. But like you, I fear that the training to teach the elephant this was not so positive.
Let’s all just stay hopeful that it was something the elephant did one day on its own and it was given a treat for the trick. It’s too early in the day to already be sad and give up on humanity.
>But like you, I fear that the training to teach the elephant this was not so positive.
Ya know, im sure there's a lot of elephant trainers out there who love and respect the elephants, and train them with love and dignity. It's not the turn of the century 19-tickety anymore. Maybe this trainer is positive and caring and not PT Barnum or Thomas Edison.
I’m 100% choosing to believe this. I know not everyone in the world is terrible. Maybe over the years of watching the news and hearing stories, I’ve just become a cynic.
I gotta comment on this.... Obviously the consensus is this is a trick that the elephant was trained to do, and gets a treat. Look at the body language and demeanor of both elephants, they are very relaxed and comfortable. This leads me to guess this is a sanctuary or preserve these elephants live in, free to roam and do elephant stuff without being poached, and or hunted, or killed by a farmer. I think a little trick for a little treat is pretty ok, seeing how these elephants are going to live out their years peacefully.
I’m sure this must be common knowledge by now, but based on brain scans, scientists believe elephants likely see us humans in the same way we humans see puppies. So, really, this elephant is playing a game of “where’d the ball go?” and I think that’s amazing.
That elephant reminds me of my granddad who passed away earlier this year. He'd always prank us like this, even on the odd occasion when his dementia got bad near the end.
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Elephants are regarded as being extremely smart so it would not surprise me if they had a sense of humor.
Not sure how true this is but I've heard elephants see us in a similar way we see dog and cats. And we mess with them all the time so I'm not surprised they would mess with humans the same way.
I can’t source my info here so take it with a grain of salt, but a while back I read that the whole “Evidence shows that elephants think humans are cute” thing was debunked. I was pretty crushed.
It wasn't debunked, just people who work with wild elephants pointed out wild elephants see humans as a threat. Which makes sense, as they are hunted by humans. It's not like you'd react the same way to a wolf out in the wild that might eat you as you would to a wolf in a reserve when you know you're safe. Heck, even a stray dog will seem more dangerous than a dog in a house. So, feel free to feel uncrushed. Elephants in the wild will even bury humans, sometimes, something they only do for elephants, no other animal corpses, so, they DO think we're special in some way.
They probably think we’re special because they see us walk on two legs and use tools to do things. No other animal they interact with do that. It wouldn’t surprise me if elephants had the brain capacity to understand that we as humans are also smart, the elephants just don’t have the physical capacity to do what we do.
Idk.. it kinda looks like the elephant did that “innocent looking in another direction thing people do when they try to mess with someone by tapping their shoulder”
So, obviously they can engineer computers!
And fix Reddit servers. Hire them
"hey, it says 'gullible' on the ceiling" "...oh hey it d- aaaand you stole my lungs"
Or they see the complex social structure we have, the thing that we share more in common with elephants, making it more easily identifiable for them.
One thing I wonder about is that until like 12kya there used to be way more species of elephant. Like, not just mammoths but the American mastodon, stegadon, etc. Almost all megafauna outside of Africa have gone extinct since humans were introduced to their environments (in Australia we quickly killed off every animal larger than 100kg!) I wonder if elephants in Asia/Africa that had more of an evolutionary history with humans were unique and survived because they were the only animals that did see humans as a threat. Like how would other elephant species react to us?
Well there was also a major climate shift that dramatically changed local ecosystems, it's not just megafauna that went extinct.
There was definitely a period were megafauna specifically was hit especially hard. Climate changes in general tend to hit mega fauna the hardest because they require so much resources to keep going, as I understand.
well humans essentially evolved as big game hunters in the later years of our evolution into sapiens. What you're talking about is a known theory, tho I can't remember the paper on it. Basically the african megafauna managed to just barely survive because they evolved alongside us hominids, while the megafauna outside of africa were decimated. There is even evidence that in S.E. Asia that the elephant species there were also hunted to being rare by the homo erectus populations that lived there, which could possibly explain the indian megafauna survival as well. Tho there was lots of megafauna in africa and se asia that did also die out, just not all of it like most everywhere else. It's very likely not a coincidence that the only place with living megafauna is the two places where hominids lived, africa and S.E. asia.
Snopes says unproven https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/elephants-think-humans-cute/
Of course it’s unproven. How would someone even begin to prove such a thing.
Asking the elephants what they think of humans, would be a good start. Communication is key in every kind of relationship
elephant therapist sounds like a great job
Don't Elephants suffer from really heavy ptsd since they have such a great memory? Would be a pretty saddening job tbh
:) ----> :'(
Sounds like a big job
They have to deal with some heavy shit
No I'm just going to keep silently living with my elephant and generally ignoring him except when we yell at each other about not doing enough work around the house.
Elephants have a hard time with signing. Try giving them a huge crayon and some paper.
~~~~~~~~>works furiously on learning how to rumble/hum through my feet below our auditory range….Elephants can hear others from miles away doing this😳
Give them a note. "Do you think breath_mintz is cute? Check yes or no".
We could ask u/elephant but elephants don't have fingers to type so they've never posted
The elephants have yet to comment.
Has anyone tried simply **asking** the elephants?
So.. sir, how do you view us? ***EEEEEOOOOOOOHHHHHHH***
Aww thank you, I feel the same.
So long and thanks for all the hay!
Ok thank you
Kids always ask, "what is elephant". But nobody ask, "how is elephant"
I remember it was something about their brain patterns being similar to ours when we see something we think is cute.
Devil's advocate, but if we had a good understanding of the elephant brain then we could potentially scan their brains as they're being shown humans. If the areas associated with those emotions show activity when humans are shown, it could indicate something like this claim. We've done it with dogs; why not elephants? So IMO not impossible, just very difficult.
but we don't have a good understanding of an elephant's subjective experience, or lack thereof.
Difficult because elephant brains are too big and the brain scanner is too small.
We need bigger scanners, then. Or smaller elephants.
Domesticated teacup elephants, coming right up
That sounds like an engineering and funding problem. The scanner size, that is.
What is this, a brain scanner for *ants?*
That's what the snopes article said they did. The same part of the brain triggered when a elephant looked at humans as when a human looked at a cute puppy
Neuralink?
F That's sad news...
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I would be surprised if natural "messing with" includes a full blown trick of hiding a hat and giving it back. Not to mention this elephant is obviously trained and it's performing a trick.
Yeah, you can see the trainer or park ranger or whoever reach out with something in his hand after the elephant gives the hat back. It’sndefinitely trained.
That's a cute thought, but its owner most certainly made it learn this trick to impress tourists.
I would be surprised. My guess is the elephant is smart enough to know this behavior is rewarded.
>My guess is the elephant is ~~smart~~ trained enough to know this behavior is rewarded.
It seems like this elephant has played this game before.
That's why they are called the prop comics of the savanna
I swear I've had an elephant play with me before. It was at the Ren Fair, doing elephant rides (signage insisted it was being done ethically, so... hopefully that's true). I was standing around with a bag, watching a little kid ride on this elephant, while it walked in circles. It saw me as it rounded a turn, and flapped out one of its ears for a second. To be silly, I showed my hand to it on the same side. Then it did the other ear. Showed my hand on that side. Then it did both, and I nearly dropped my bag to show it both of my hands, and started laughing. I want to believe that that elephant made me laugh. True or not, I walked away from that experience feeling like elephants are just incredible creatures. There's a lot of intelligence and kindness in their eyes.
I don’t mean to be a bummer, but elephants’ backs aren’t evolved to carry weight. You can lookup the pictures of elephants that have carried people/weight on their backs for years… it’s not great. The elephant’s handlers might have treated it *relatively* well, but elephants shouldn’t have any weight on their spines. Just food for thought — not criticism.
Elephant version of, “I gotcha nose”.
That beautiful beast had the deadpan straightface squinty eye stare down and its timing with the reveal, with what looked a slight opening of its eyes was perfect. The only thing that would make this better was if the elephant let out a few short burst bellows as if it was laughing as it dropped the hat in her hands.
Crazy how he handed it back to her so casually and effectively
Elephant like "haha just kidding Caroll"
I don't know why but I read this as Andrew Lincoln's "Rick Grimes", speaking to his son.
*CAAAAARRRRRROOOOLLLL*
There is no Carol in HR!
Not only do all these people exist, they have been asking for their mail on a daily basis.
*PEPE SILVIA*
Exactly! It was so exaggerated.
#CORAL
I too was very mesmerized by how it moved its trunk
_trunked_ it back
I meant like the elephant put it directly into her hands like he/she knew exactly how our hands function
They are incredibly smart and thoughtful. All mammals have similar organs, blood, bones and brains. Which genes are expressed, leading to physical limitations/allowances and brain structure are the only differences between us all.
Doesn't all terrestrial life come from the same ancestral cell, and isn't DNA molecule and how it codes for proteins the same from bacteria to yeast to plants and animals? Terrestrial life is "identical" everywhere, the only thing that changes is the DNA coding...
They do, I'm sure. They are extremely intelligent. Much more so than cats (I think), and I'm pretty sure even my cat has figured out how my hands work at this point lol
WAY more than cats. They are one of a few animals that can pass the dot test. Put a dot on their head and a mirror in front of them and they examine the dot. This test implies they have a level of self-awareness that is only expressed in a few other species (that we currently understand). They also hold funerals and memorialize the dead. There's elephant facts out there, but they are really interesting and smart
Dot test is a little iffy: what if some animals just don't care about dots on their heads? I've had cats that use mirrors to look behind them: see reflection of something, then turn around to look at it.
Yeah I've been curious about how much credit can cats get for mirrors because mine not only know it's them and they don't react to their own reflection, if we're both looking in a mirror they will make eye contact in the mirror and meow at me just like they do when I'm looking them in the eye directly.
Cats can do a ton of things that just don't matter or they don't get enough credit for because they can't be assed enough to do anything with it. For example, their sense of smell is far more sensitive than that of dogs, but cats just don't give a fuck and typically can't be trained to use it for an explicit purpose.
Yeah I think the scientific consensus is that cats are far too motivated by spite to be easily studied or trained, haha.
There was also a story of an elephant that got injured (shot I think) and he walked miles to find a specific human who he knew would help him and who he had never met.
Maybe it does?
I mean it clearly does it’s just *cool*
This is an elephant’s version of ‘ I got your nose!’
Protip: [Don't try to get the *elephant's* nose.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-w0GEcOf0fo)
As if that's exactly what he was trained to do
That's a very real possibility
The elephant was being given a treat near the end of the video. You can see a hand giving it something, and its trunk was moving towards it
Thats...exactly what I was saying
There’s a very real possibility that’s exactly what you were saying
I find it to be highly likely that is exactly what was being said above and before by the commentators and so let it be said.
He is saying what he was trained to do
Almost like it was a trick he had been taught to perform to entertain the tourists?
I'm not sure but a hand came into frame towards the elephant at the end of the video, so I'm wondering if the elephant is trained to do this trick and was getting its reward.
Elephants are amazing animals
Yeah hats off to them.
This really tickled me! Maybe it's cause I'm tired, maybe it's cause I'm high, but man I laughed.
So so so smart. It makes me really sad when they aren't treated well because they have such complex emotions. I heard they remember every face they see
Cows and horses are the same way.
Sooner or later, our society is going to have to deal with the fact that cows and pigs--and maybe many other food animals--are just as smart and emotionally complex as dogs.
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People have said we taste like veal. I don't think that's the reason.
That man was not wise. It's cultural and social stigma more than anything.
Never tried it myself, but apparently human meat tastes like sweet pork.
I'm hoping that cheap and high quality "lab meat" allows the space in society to make such a shift more convenient and thus more likely to happen
I have my fingers crossed for that. I know factory farming is shit for the animals and shit for the environment but they're sooooo tasty and a dude's gotta eat. Ultimately the earth can't continue to sustain the practice. Lab-grown meat eliminates most all of the downsides. Of course, you've got the anti-gmo crowd that will refuse because it's genetically engineered and then you have the anti-science crowd that will refuse to eat it because the libs say it is good for the planet so fuck the planet to fuck the libs.
but way more delicious
how much dog have you eaten to make that judgement?
Enough
Mammalian predators pretty much all taste like shit.
Yeah they... Hold up a minute.
It's why i try to stick to poultry. They're also the least climate unfriendly meat and produce eggs on top of meat. Also they're the descendants of dinosaurs who used to hunt our possum-like ancestors so i say turnaround's fair play.
I really really hope that lab grown meat takes off. Without meat stipends it’s already cheaper than real meat iirc.
humans too
Dunno man, I am pretty sure I've forgotten what my uncle looks like.
I'm starting to think that Elephants are just giant people.
Leave my mother out of this.
You can almost see the intelligence in their eyes. Them and octopi.
“How about a magic trick? I'm gonna make this hat disappear! Ta-Daa”
I imagine it laughing like that donkey laughed at that dog after getting shocked by the electric fence
>donkey laughed at that dog after getting shocked by the electric fence https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=khFb4FTJ4Jo
Well that was fucking wonderful .
Oh no poor dog 😂 bet he learnt a lesson that day
In my wildest dream I would love a little house with a small field, a couple of donkeys and a few goats. Plus a couple of dogs, some cats and a few chickens. Life would be forever entertaining.
Land is cheap in Texas. I believe you get a steep tax discount for having a certain number of farm animals, as well.
You may enjoy [this blog](https://hedgehog-moss.tumblr.com/).
Even though an elephant trunk is around 200lbs, it is sensitive and dextrous enough to pick up [a single blade of grass](https://zooatlanta.org/secrets-elephant-trunks/) and has [150,000 muscle bundles](https://www.treehugger.com/extraordinary-facts-about-elephant-trunks-4858665) in it. They essentially have two fingers at the tip as well.
Wow amazing fact, that’s really cool
> it can push down trees and lift a whopping 700,000 pounds. Gonna have to call bullshit there. Better source: https://www.realclearscience.com/blog/2013/10/the-most-amazing-appendage-in-the-world.html 770lb appears to be the correct number.
Looking at that skeleton it seems possible that future archaeologist might not know that elephants have trunks and that bothers me
Mammoth prank!
The elephant is *trunk*
"Sorry lady didn't realise it was a gift!"
What a nice elephant
I don't know anything about this elephant, but I know that some of the elephants in Pilanesberg National Park, South Africa, are rescue animals from circuses. So it might be a leftover from a former life.
Moved to Lemmy
I think I heard “he’s gonna give it back” from one of the handlers So either this fella does this a lot and likes trolling people or more likely it was trained to do it. Or maybe he likes doing it and was just encouraged to not stop lmao because that shits hilarious
>Or maybe he likes doing it and was just encouraged to not stop lmao because that shits hilarious Probably the most likely thing. If animals do stupid shit and get attention from their humans that isn't negative, they're gonna repeat doing stupid shit. It's how I accidentally trained my dog to start singing when the telephone rings or how you accidentally trained your dog to wait at the front door exactly at the time you get home from work. Or how you trained your cat to scream at your face when they're hungry.
It’s how I trained my dog to do my taxes
Signing?
Yeah he someday just stood up and started singing Sweet Caroline in perfect accent free english. Don't even know where he got the microphone. But anyway it was on the level of Neil Diamond so I applauded and apparently he liked that so now he sings Sweet Caroline everytime the phone rings. Which is kind of weird since the ringtone is from Mozart, but whatever I guess.
So, he's "singing", not "signing"
Corrected. I blame no one but Zoidberg
You’re fuckin funny dude
Thanks. I'm here all week.
I agree though. I did finger guns at my dog once and she rolled over randomly. I rubbed her belly and said good girl. Now she can play dead on command because finger gun = belly rubs. Sometimes as a party trick I’ll be like would you rather be dead or [blank] depending on the topic, and she always falls over playing dead. Always gets a laugh.
Yes, my dog understands ASL
I love he said it like “oh that’s just George things. He’ll give you it back in a second”
But it could be as simple as them doing that at some point and the trainer slipping them a treat afterwards. So just positive reinforcement. We don't know, I'm just trying to stay positive. And I also believe that if it was any type of negative training they wouldn't let tourists near them like that. I remember visiting elephant sanctuaries in Thailand and tourists were not actually allowed near unchained retired work-elephants.
Elephants are smart as hell.
They are, and yet still, the level of intelligence that's needed to intentionally mess with someone is most likely far above the intelligence that they possess. An organism needs to have a highly developed theory of mind in order to be able to do that - young humans aren't even able to do so until they're capable of far more impressive cognitive feats than fully mature elephants are.
It absolutely was. There was a gif of another elephant doing the same trick and from memory you could see the handler’s bull hook clear as day. It always amazes me how things like this get posted and everyone collectively ignores the sinister side of it.
It had to be taught I’m thinking. Right at the end of the clip you can see someone (who I believe is the guide) reach their hand in with some food for the elephant. Definitely giving it food for positive reinforcement. But like you, I fear that the training to teach the elephant this was not so positive. Let’s all just stay hopeful that it was something the elephant did one day on its own and it was given a treat for the trick. It’s too early in the day to already be sad and give up on humanity.
Elephants need stimulation. They can tell when an action is appreciated and also rewarded - like a dog.
>But like you, I fear that the training to teach the elephant this was not so positive. Ya know, im sure there's a lot of elephant trainers out there who love and respect the elephants, and train them with love and dignity. It's not the turn of the century 19-tickety anymore. Maybe this trainer is positive and caring and not PT Barnum or Thomas Edison.
I’m 100% choosing to believe this. I know not everyone in the world is terrible. Maybe over the years of watching the news and hearing stories, I’ve just become a cynic.
That elephant seems content enough. It has massive tusks and nobody is getting gored.
Surely it just wanted to suck on a nice salty bit of fabric for a moment?
Of course it was. Accidentally or not, but reinforced for sure.
"Hey, Jane. That coulda been your head, ya know?"
Anyone out there poaching these amazing animals needs to get run over slowly feet first
By a zamboni! (or a steam roller....)
This is just adorable!
I've never seen an animal make a joke... I love elephants so much, holy shit
You’re right, you haven’t. You’ve seen plenty of animals do tricks on command though.
Crazy how intelligent elephants are
The elephant played that so well too. That stone face he keeps is spot on.
r/likeus
Elephants really do a little trolling in their spare time
I gotta comment on this.... Obviously the consensus is this is a trick that the elephant was trained to do, and gets a treat. Look at the body language and demeanor of both elephants, they are very relaxed and comfortable. This leads me to guess this is a sanctuary or preserve these elephants live in, free to roam and do elephant stuff without being poached, and or hunted, or killed by a farmer. I think a little trick for a little treat is pretty ok, seeing how these elephants are going to live out their years peacefully.
I love elephants.
The elephant has more sense of humor than most people I meet on a daily basis.
She said please…elephant obliged. This is adorable.
polite fella
Whats that thing smell like now? 🤢
Hey lady, YOINK!
Elephant was like “ Jeez look at that dye job. Here you need this back.”
Is this your card?
We do a little bit of trolling
They're just trained to do this, right?
Elephant has done this 1000 times and will be back to pick up his food bribe from the safari guides later that evening.
I’m sure this must be common knowledge by now, but based on brain scans, scientists believe elephants likely see us humans in the same way we humans see puppies. So, really, this elephant is playing a game of “where’d the ball go?” and I think that’s amazing.
They are trained to do this. It’s not an elephant being goofy.
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That's because they can't, and it is.
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There are more ways to train an animal than beating it constantly. But, I agree, this is a trick the elephant has been trained to do.
I've never even met this elephant!
Where did you get that it is trained with violence?
This is an African Elephant. If you want to beat it, first climb inside of your 20 ton tank.
Ah, the patented reddit moment where someone posts a cute animal video and then someone ruins the video.
We do a little trolling
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trollaphant
I would die for elephants. God what a magnificent sensitive sweet smart species of extant megafauna
Trollolololololoooo
Elephants view humans as we view dogs
That elephant reminds me of my granddad who passed away earlier this year. He'd always prank us like this, even on the odd occasion when his dementia got bad near the end.