This information is from the Riddle's brochure. For more information,
please see their site: http://www.elephantsanctuary.org,
or call (501) 589-3291.
Save
the Elephants
A group in Kenya that is working very hard for the benefit of African
elephants.
"It is our mission to secure a future
for elephants and to sustain the beauty
and ecological integrity of the places where they live; to promote
man's delight
in their intelligence and the diversity of their world, and to develop
a
tolerant relationship between the two species."
Save the Elephants (STE) approaches conservation from an elephant’s
perspective. We believe elephants deserve special respect from humanity
because they are sensate beings with a higher order consciousness,
and we intend to safeguard their future in an increasingly insecure
world.
The charity was founded in 1993 by Dr. Iain Douglas-Hamilton, Chairman
of the Board of Trustees, who made a pioneering study of elephant
behaviour in the late '60s in Lake Manyara National Park, Tanzania,
and has worked on elephant status Africa-wide since. Explorers, conservationists
and elephant scientists serve as fellow trustees or advisors to the
board.
Education on elephants in all media is an important priority for
STE, to raise conservation awareness around the world. Our Elephant
Library has over 3000 reprints of journals, theses and scientific
papers. STE was the scientific advisor to the IMAX film Africa's Elephant
Kingdom, from Discovery Channel Pictures that is now being shown in
IMAX theatres world wide. We work with school children in elephant
areas and have run field exercises and study projects for national
and international student groups.
Grassroots conservation programmes take an anthropological slant
and work to develop a conservation ethic that builds on local knowledge
of wildlife. The best potential ambassadors for elephants are those
who live amongst them. We believe that the Maa-speaking peoples (Samburu
and Maasai) who share their land with elephants will become some of
the finest elephant conservationists in Africa. We explore mythologies
and day to day perceptions of elephants and invite local people to
examine new information on animal behaviour and the larger environment.
Developing "elephant awareness" and encouraging both adults
and children to be intellectually curious about elephants and the
ecosystem has stimulated learning and enforced positive attitudes.
STE works with the Samburu, exploring their myths, legends and reinforcing
positive attitudes towards elephants Protection: In 1997 the Convention
for International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Flora and Fauna
(CITES) decided to reopen limited ivory sales between 3 African countries
and Japan. STE has helped the Kenya Wildlife Service carry out vital
ground and aerial surveys to measure any changes in elephant poaching
in key populations due to increased ivory trade. STE believes the
greatest threat to elephants is the ivory trade and we strongly support
a total ivory trade ban. The charity is recognised by CITES as an
international organisation. STE finds lethal sport hunting of elephants
ethically insupportable and has proposed Green-hunting as a complete
alternative. Successful green-hunts have been carried out in Timbavati
Private Nature Reserve, South Africa.
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|
One of the owners of our company heard a saying
that when an elephant kneels the world is at peace. He was taken by
the idea and decided to name the label Kneeling
Elephant Records. I'm not sure where the saying originates,
and I haven't been able to find anything regarding it specifically.
While looking around the internet, I found a temple in Asia which referred
to kneeling elephants, but I don't remember the country or the website.
If I find out any more info, I'll pass it along.
And if you hear of anything about kneeling elephants, please pass
it on to me.
kimberly@kneelingelephant.com
|
|
Not only does this programme ensure the future of the orphans
and those that might be cared for in the future, it will also enable us
to tackle the many problems that elephants face both in Kenya and throughout
the world. Care for the Wild is a small but effective international
animal welfare charity dedicated to protecting wildlife from suffering
and exploitation. Adopting an animal could provide someone with a very
special and unique gift. |
| I stumbled across your website while looking up information
on the memory of an elephant. Seeing your request for elephant stories,
I was reminded of an incident that occurred about 15 years ago while visiting
the Cincinnati Zoo with my young daughter. It was a beautiful day and
so they had the elephants outside. Although today's practices disallow
the feeding of the animals, back then you could buy a bag of peanuts and
feed the elephants. All that was needed was to hold out your hand over
the cement wall barrier and the elephants would eventually spot your hand
and come over. They would stand on the rock edge and stretch their trunk
to take the peanuts from your hand. It was a lot of fun for all but eventually
to protect the animals, the zoo prohibited feeding.
One day we had fed several peanuts to the largest elephant when another
man began to hold out his hand. Several times as the elephant stretched
his trunk, the man teased the elephant by pulling his hand back and
refusing to feed him. After a few times, the elephant gave up and walked
back in the yard to get a drink. We watched while the elephant took
a drink. The man continued to hold out his hand and the elephant walked
back but this time blew a full trunk of water directly at him! What
was interesting, besides the humorous retaliation of the elephant, was
that the elephant knew exactly which man had done the teasing and the
water spout was directed right at him, despite many other people standing
along the cement wall.
It remains a special memory of mine today of the elephant who didn't
forget.
Debra Carnahan
Cincinnati, OH
|
Silk painting from Rajasthan, India. Scanned from
an OXFAM greeting card.
|
 |
American photographer Andrew Stern presents a photo essay about Lucy,
a large and cavernous elephant.
|
|
An exhaustive, well-organized site. In places, it taps the poetry
of humanity's relationship with the elephant. Sections include News,
Library, Galleries (i.e. sounds, cartoons, art and advertising),
plus detailed links.
|
Book Cover
Rudyard Kipling's
From Sea to Sea
and other Sketches
Macmillan and Co., Ltd. * London 1910
In the Ozark Mountain foothills in Arkansas is a non-profit [IRS 501(C)(3)]
home for any elephant that needs one for any reason. This site includes
biographies of its individual residents.
Elephants have opposable thumbs.
Q:
WHY DO ELEPHANTS SWAY?
A:
Mostly because they are bored. When they stand still in chains often, they
develop this as a bad habit. They also becomes a bit dizzy, and are often
in a mood of half sleeping during this movement. It seems, eventually, as
if the behavior origins in the fact, that stimulation of the footpads stimulates
that reverse backflow of the blood in the feet, through the veins back to
the heart. But it is not, as laymen may think think, that the elephants are
"crazy". They are as much as crazy as we, when we walk back and
forth, waiting for the bus a chilly day. To prevent it, the elephants must
be stimulated in some way.
Q:
DO ELEPHANTS EVER FORGET?
A:
The elephants mind and memory are similar to other intelligent mammals. This
means that they do have a good memory, but not better or worse than dogs,
cats, or humans. And sometimes, like dogs, they do sometimes forget the meaning
of "come here", if they are occupied, or "go away", if
you are holding a banana.
Extremely important for elephants as a species, is their "culture memory",
the knowledge and memories based upon experience, that may help a group when
it´s a draught. A group of young elephants, where the old one´s
are killed will be much more vulnerable when it comes to deal with and solve,
for example climatical problems, that depends of the knowledge of old migration
routes.
Q:
HOW DO ELEPHANTS SHOW JOY?
A:
When you are familiar with elephants, you can easily see their joy in their
eyes. Apart from that, there´s different body signs that´s very
much the same as when they are upset: They will hold their tail straight out,
flap their ears, and sometimes trumpet. A normal joy will often only be seen
by a bit dizzy eyes and a calm body appearance. Very important between elephants,
or between an elephant and keeper they like, is to express joy with their
infrasound rumbling.
Q:
DO PEOPLE STILL RIDE ELEPHANTS IN INDIA?
A:
Yes they do, for various occasions, such as temple ceremonies, but their use
in forestry has gone down since many forests are now protected. These elephants
are presently used as safari-riding elephants instead, taking people for rides
in protected forests that previously were harvested teak forests. This is
where you most likely may ride an elephant in India today.
When
Elephants Weep: The Emotional Lives of Animals
by Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson and Susan McCarthy
(1995, Bantam Doubleday Dell)
This book is filled with profound stories about all kinds of creatures, including,
of course, elephants. One particular story that continues to haunt me is about
Sadie, a circus elephant (reproduced here with the publisher's permission):
 |
In his book, Elephant
Tramp, George Lewis, an itinerant elephant trainer, reported in 1955
that in the years he had worked with elephants he had seen only one weeping.
This was a young, timid female named Sadie, who was being trained along
with five others to do an act for the Robbins Brothers Circus. The elephants
were being taught their acts quickly, since the show would start in three
weeks, but Sadie had trouble learning what was wanted. One day, unable
to understand what she was being told to do, she ran out of the ring.
"We brought her back and began to punish her for being so stupid."
(Based on information Lewis gives elsewhere, they probably punished her
by hitting her on the side of the head with a large stick.) To their astonishment,
Sadie, who was lying down, began to utter racking sobs, and tears poured
from her eyes. The dumbfounded trainers knelt by Sadie, caressing her.
Lewis says that he never punished her again, and that she learned the
act and became a "good" circus elephant. |
Elephants are matriarchal.
The female elders lead the herd. They determine the direction of the herd's
travel. They are the primary defenders. Males are driven from the herd at
puberty (about age 13), and generally spend the next 3 or 4 years following
their family herd at a distance of no more than half a mile. After that,
the males congregate in loose, unstructured herds, much less organized or
stable than that of the family herds.
A calf may nurse with any nursing female in the herd, although it is very
clear to the elephants who is whose offspring. Teenage females do so much
to help tend the young, short of nursing, that by the time they have their
first calf they are quite experienced at mothering.
Elephants "bury" their dead.
When an elephant dies, other elephants have been seen placing branches
on top of its corpse.
When a herd comes across the bones of a dead elephant, they examine the
bones by touching them with their trunks and putting them in their mouths.
Then they either scatter the bones by carrying them out of the clearing
into nearby brush, or place branches on top of them.
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