I've always suspected that we weren't the only intelligent species on this planet...

[DarkTirade]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=He7Ge7Sogrk

I'd say that this is better than some of the cave paintings we humans did back in the days.

[Rabrrrrrr]

1. Dang. Does that elephant really know what it's painting?

If so, then... wow.

Time to reassess our opinion of certain animal's intelligences.

Almost spooky.

[DarkTirade]

2. Between apes that can speak with sign language

and elephants that display all the hallmarks of intelligence... I really think we've got at least two other sentient or near-sentient species here on this planet.

[Elidor]

4. And dolphins

Supposedly, one of the chimps who first learned a rudimentary sign-language on a simplified keyboard soon learned to combine the symbols "shit-scientist" to indicate her contempt for her ivory tower colleagues. Alas, I have no citation for this, it's just one of those old brain cells filed away under language trivia, probably from an article in Scientific American or Discover or perhaps even the old Omni way back when.

[DarkTirade]

6. Dolphins are very intelligent

but the ones who I suspect cross the line from smart to sapient are the whales. :)

[kineneb]

7. so long, and thanks for all the fish...

(RIP Douglas Adams)

[Elidor]

9. 42.

42.

[Rabrrrrrr]

26. Yep. The dolphins have been warning us for centuries, but we don't listen.

:rofl:

I love that part of Hitchhiker's.

[IntravenousDemilo]

48. The weird thing is, we still seem to think digital watches are pretty neat. n/m

[NV Whino]

5. Maybe there's hope for the world after all

[Droopy]

23. I think that's the most amazing thing I've ever seen

Thank you very much for posting that link. I'm going to forward it to everyone I know.

[graywarrior]

3. How beautiful!

Thanks for posting this. Absolutely amazing.

[Dangerously Amused]

8. Ohhh, unbelievable and so sweet!

Breaks my heart when gentle, intelligent sentient beings are used/abused.

:cry:

Cool site where the paintings are sold, too: http://store.exoticworldgifts.com/prostores/servlet/-strse-277/Painted-by-an-Elephant/Detail

Thanks for posting this.

[nytemare]

10. I know, the elephant deserved a hug!

What a sweetie.

I love websites like that. Thehungersite.com is another that sells items, and will tell you how much food hungry people will get based on what you buy. You can also purhcase things like school supplies for a month, two goats for a family, all for a reasonable price, and you are really helping these people out.

[Dangerously Amused]

11. Cool, I will check that site out, too.

Thanks!

:hi:

[nytemare]

39. Sure!

They have a wide variety of items.

:)

[Tuesday Afternoon]

12. beautiful

:loveya:

[LeftyFingerPop]

13. I'm speechless...that is really amazing.

Thanks for posting this.

[Pierre.Suave]

14. Holy Crap

that is THE most amazing thing I have ever seen.

I am buying one of the Elephant Paintings. They are so awesome and incredible.

[DarkTirade]

15. Damn elephant's a better artist than I am...

:P

[Pierre.Suave]

17. me too

I cant paint for shit.

[Lil Missy]

16. That was amazing! I have so much respect for the abilities of animals anyway. n/t

[GoddessOfGuinness]

18. How I wish we knew how to listen to them...

We could learn so much.

This is amazing...Thanks for posting it! :wow:

[Alexander]

19. That's incredible. When I realized what the painting was my jaw dropped.

Trained or not, that's a sure sign that elephants are intelligent.

The YouTube video says this elephant was rescued from an abusive existence in Burma. It breaks my heart to know there are humans who would willingly hurt these creatures, and at the same time I'm glad this one seems to get better treatment now.

[DarkTirade]

20. Hurt... and there are those willing to hunt them.

Same with gorillas and whales, and just about any other animal that could very well be of equal or similar intelligence to our own.

[Alexander]

21. One of my cats learned how to open doors. If only we could communicate...

I'm sure we'd learn a lot from animals.

[asteroid2003QQ47]

22. Damn the cat haters!

The 20 posters that preceded you could learn from cats.
I maintain the dumbest of cats is way smarter then the smartest of humans!
Thank you, Alexander.

[TZ]

24. I'm not surprised

Did you know that elephants may have graveyards and funerals of sorts? They will pick up and reverently handle their ancestors bones.
Also elephants can communicate over long distances using a frequency of sound that we can't hear (sort of like dolphins do).
I have heard zoologists make the case that whales, dolphins, AND elephants are the most likely animals to be sapient.
http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn8209

[FloridaJudy]

25. Amazing!

I've long suspected that elephants are, really, really smart. They're the only animals I know of aside from primates that care for their ill and aging companions. They even have been observed to bury their dead with great ceremony.

Pity the Repubs picked them as their symbol. It's a horrendous disrespect to these magnificent animals to associate them with repressive social policies.

[Lyric]

27. This makes me wonder about something.

Some of the cave paintings that we have always assumed were made by primitive humans--what if they weren't human paintings after all?

A few years ago I was visiting Lowry Park Zoo in Tampa, and we were near the chimpanzee exhibit area. We were standing on one side of a ravine, and the chimps were on the other; it was one of those "open" exhibits in which the only separation between zoo visitor and the animals is a wide pit. I happen to know some ASL, so just for the sake of experimentation, I signed "Hello" and "Beautiful" to one of them--a youngish male who was sitting all by himself and not interacting with the other chimps at all. He signed back to me. "Hello. I love you. Cookie. Stupid (pointing at the other chimps). Hold me. Hold me. Hold me."

I was stunned; I couldn't believe what I was seeing. How did that chimp learn sign language? How did he GET there if he knows sign language? Why on earth would they have put a chimpanzee like that back into a group of chimps that can't communicate with him? I just stood there in shock, and his signing became more desperate. He got agitated and started trying to figure out a way to get across the ravine to where I was standing, and I had to walk away, because I was afraid he was going to jump for it and hurt himself. I started crying, and tried to track down one of the zoo staff, to tell them that there was a chimp back there who knows at least *some* ASL, but the one person we found just brushed it off as "Oh, he was just copying you. Chimps are smart, you know." But he *wasn't* copying me. The only signs I made were "Hello" and "Beautiful". Everything else was him. He even made some signs that I couldn't recognize, having only the most basic knowledge of ASL--but I could tell that they *were* signs.

I still wonder if that poor thing is stuck there--able to communicate, but without anyone around him who knows or cares about it. :cry:

[BarenakedLady]

30. Oh that breaks my heart.

:cry:

It could very well have once been a research chimp.

:cry:

[Dangerously Amused]

31. .

:cry:

[BreweryYardRat]

35. Hm. I'm in Tampa. Maybe I should go take a look.

Don't know any ASL, but I could bring a book of signs and use that as a sort of impromptu translator.

What'd the chimp look like, physically? You said youngish, solitary male...any distinguishing features?

[Lyric]

36. Oooo, that would be wonderful if you could do it.

It's been over 2 years, so my memory of him is a bit fuzzy. I'm kicking myself right now for not taking pictures of him. From what I remember, he was youngish (he looked like a young adult), very dark fur with orange-tan around his face, and the whole time that we were there he was crouched off by himself near the ravine. He really didn't seem to be the least bit interested in the other chimps. That's what drew my attention in the first place; I heard from a zoo worker at the Pittsburgh Zoo that chimpanzees who have been taught ASL generally dislike the company of "uneducated" chimpanzees. They get frustrated because the other chimps can't "talk back" to them, so when I saw him all alone like that, I thought that maybe he might be a "signing" chimp.

If you go to the zoo and find him, please let me know. I've never forgotten him, and the memory of how he was nearly ready to fling himself hail-mary across the ravine to try and get to someone who could "talk" to him still haunts me. If he's still there, maybe we can get someone from USF who knows or teaches ASL to come and verify to the zoo staff that they have a "signing" chimpanzee on their hands. They didn't seem inclined to believe *me* back then, but perhaps they'll believe someone who's an expert on the subject.

The day I was at the zoo was January 25th, 2006, if that's any help.

[GreenPartyVoter]

44. That is too cool! You can find ASL sites online with videos to show you how to

make some signs.

[GreenPartyVoter]

43. Oh, man! That poor guy! Did you ever try following up on it?

[MonkeyFunk]

28. That's impressive

I was floored at first, but after thinking about it for awhile, I think the elephant is trained somehow to do that. I don't believe it's aware that it's drawing an elephant.

But still, very impressive.

[DarkTirade]

33. Elephants show many other signs of intelligence.

I think it knew what it was drawing.

[MonkeyFunk]

37. Then it's very odd

that it drew it in a way a modern human would draw an elephant.

And did it choose to have the elephant carrying a flower in its trunk? Maybe it was drawing Horton.

[DarkTirade]

38. Oh, I'm not saying there wasn't any training/coaxing involved.

But I do think it knew what it was drawing.

[MonkeyFunk]

40. based on what?

Just that video? We can't see what, if anything, the trainer is doing. We have no idea how the elephant was trained.

Do you think it just one day thought to itself "I'm going to draw an elephant"?

[DarkTirade]

41. I said "I think", I didn't say, "I have proof."

However, unless one knows what shape they are trying to make, it's rather difficult to imitate a bunch of lines and have it appear to be something.

[BarenakedLady]

29. Amazing

Blows my mind.

:wow:

[deepthought42]

32. Yes, technically, humans are the 3rd most intelligent species

occupying the planet. Dolphins, of course, are the 2nd most intelligent species... :)

[Fire Walk With Me]

34. Absolutely marvelous.

[GreenPartyVoter]

42. Amazing!

[laconicsax]

45. The elephant is trained to make those specific brush strokes.

From the elephant's biography:  (http://www.elephantart.com/)

At six years old, Hong has a very curious nature.  She loves to investigate everything and once managed to use her trunk to open the door of a truck.  This kind of curiosity made Hong a natural candidate for artistic instruction.

Two years ago, Hong began painting with her mahout, Noi Rakchang, and has steadily developed her skills.  After learning how to paint flowers, she moved on to more advanced paintings.  She now has two specialties.  One is an elephant holding flowers with her trunk, and the other is the Thai flag.  An elephant with so much control and dexterity is capable of amazing work. Just for clarification, with these realistic figural works, the elephant is still the only one making the marks on the paper but the paintings are learned series of brushstrokes not Hong painting a still life on her own.

(emphasis mine)

She clearly intelligent enough to learn the set of complex actions necessary make the painting, but isn't necessarily aware of what those brush strokes represent.  The other elephants trained to paint tend to either make abstract elephant-art, or are trained to paint flowers and elephants.  It seems that when left to their own devices, elephants make more abstract paintings like these:

[DarkTirade]

46. I guess I was wrong, it doesn't know what it's painting.

But that's still pretty damn smart. :)

[IntravenousDemilo]

47. I've always suspected that we weren't ONE of the intelligent species on this planet. n/m