{ 2008 03 22 }

See a Mad Elephant?? U better run!!!

        We all Know Elephants...Those huge, grey(sometimes not so grey), peaceful creatures which seems to be human’s best friend in various ways from carrying heavy wooden logs to overweight tourists in the name of giving tourists the authentic experience.  And ofcourse, we can’t forget Dumbo, Walt Disney’s flying Elephant which has also given us a perspective of elephants as lonely, peaceful and human loving creatures all along. Even some of us could have seen elephants playing Soccer in many shows in zoos around the world, making us think that they are very friendly and harmless.

 

        Dumbo-The Disney's Flying Elephant

        A mad elephant is something different, very different indeed. Imagine 7000 kg. Running. With 40 km/h. Directly charging at you. Making the soil tremble. Now, you better run. Fast. And, the most important - run downhill. Elephants don’t run downhill. Big weight, weak knees, no walking-sticks. So you escape and better directly enter the next bar you could lay your eyes on for a drink. I assure you- you will need it.

            So why do Elephants go mad? Just to clarify if some of you all are relating it to mad cows. They have nothing in common of course other than both being mad. Mad Cow disease is an incurable, fatal brain disease that affects cows nervous system causing them to act strangely and not being able to do basic actions. On the other hand Elephants go mad due to a totally different reason. Most Elephants used in circuses or Indian Temples are often kept along rather than in a pair or a group Whereas in Nature, Elephants are social creatures who are always in “closely-knit family groups”. They are “sensitive” and “social animals” who would suffer in captivity because “they are prevented from carrying out natural behaviours.” Due to this after a few years, elephants which are unable to adapt to the new surroundings go mad and cause havoc in their surroundings.

I have added some videos below. Just a word of caution: Some of these videos do tend to be violent acts performed by elephants. So if you are uncomfortable with seeing humans being thrown around by elephants, please deter from watching the videos below.


Mad Elephant in the Zoo


Mad Elephant in Indian Temple Festival
http://www.MotionFlicks.com/desi/view_video.php?viewkey=95ccda9c6ca4a8b981f1


Advertisement using Mad Elephant
Mad elephant - Amazing videos are here

Finally, I would also like to say the elephants are not to blame for any of their violent acts but rather the humans themselves who have put them in solitary and confined environments against their normal behaviours. Below is an animal activists talking about one of the mistreated elephants, Arna, which has turned mad

"How would you like it? Chained to the ground with about three feet leeway to walk around. Getting a hose shoved in your mouth a couple of times a day. I don’t reckon I would be able to bond with the people treating me like that. How stupid do you think Arna is?"

Many scientists like June Bird from Animal Lib Australia have been trying out various methods of getting these mad elephants back to their natural habitats and trying to get them back to their normal conditions. Mostly these are failures since the elephants who have gone bad are neither able to adjust back to natural habitats in forests or live with humans. Therefore, these mad elephants are more often that not forced to live the rest of their lives in misery trying and failing to adjust to the habitats they are mad to live in. Hopefully Animal Abuse and its effects on animals would reach more people around the world and many of these mistreated animals would be able to leave a natural and normal life in their habitats.


        An interesting Chess game that I found while googling is Mad Elephant Chess game. Instead of our normal chess, this game's Elephants have an extra special move, they can go on a rampage. I wonder how it makes the game fun or to put it more appropriately havoc.

Click on the link below to know more about the game

http://www.chessvariants.org/diffmove.dir/mad-elephant.html


References:

“Arna, the elephant is going mad,” by Sydney Tribe, 2002. http://www.mattcleary.com/arna.htm

"Are humans causing elephants to go mad?" by Newyork Times Magazine oct 6 2006 http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6209655

Videos from Youtube:
Mad Elephant in the Zoo: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LYZ0b99ZOJw&NR=1

Video from Metacafe:
Mad Elephant: http://www.metacafe.com/watch/749272/mad_elephant/

Video from Motionflicks:
Mad Elephant in India: http://www.MotionFlicks.com/desi/view_video.php?viewkey=95ccda9c6ca4a8b981f1




by ERSHAD AHAMED MEHAR BATCHA on 22-Mar-08 11:15 PM
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