3 Responses to Elephant paints self portrait?!

1. 

   Arto Bendiken

   April 15, 2008 at 10:07 pm

   Truly amazing, and Snopes confirms authenticity:

   http://www.snopes.com/photos/animals/elephantpainting.asp

   The following summary of elephant intelligence would indicate that we’re talking about mental abilities that in some areas, particularly memory, could even surpass our own:

   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elephant_intelligence
2. 

   Vinay Gupta

   April 15, 2008 at 10:19 pm

   Good find on the Snopes.

   Yeah, it makes me wonder if, in 200 years, we’ll regard elephants as “people.”

   All it would likely take, I think, is a reasonable translation of their fairly complex vocalizations into something we could understand, and the communications would open.

   It’s clear they have self consciousness and remember their dead – they go back to the bones of their friends, and run their trunks over their teeth, which is the elephant equivalent of a handshake…
3. 

   Phil

   January 25, 2014 at 8:05 pm

   Did you even read the snopes page. These elephants were trained to follow the direction of a trainer. And that training was most likely very harsh and brutal!