Beloved elephants, cool toucans & animal activism

“People always ask me if I ever stroke her or touch her, and I don’t . . . I just feel it’s a sacred line and I don’t want to cross it. . . I feel the moment I was to reach out and touch her, it feels that I would claim ownership of her and it’s just wrong.  Because she isn’t mine.  She’s wild and she’s free . . . ” -- Dora Nightingale, founder & director of Fox Guardians (foxguardians.co.uk), referring to Faith, a wild fox who has for years visited her in her garden  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SFlrcm27ALg&feature=youtu.be  

                                                                                                                                                                                     Dodo pic

Finally free from posts about bats and viruses for a while, I happily returned to elephants, the world’s largest land animals (and prominent in my pantheon of loved creatures).  But before moving on to other animal issues, a clarification, a comparison and a couple generalizations . . .

All elephants are pachyderms, but not all pachyderms are elephants -- even though I’ve seen the words used interchangeably.  “Pachydermata” is an obsolete 19th-century classification meaning thick-skinned animals.  Besides elephants, this group also included rhinos and hippos.  In fact, whales were once called sea pachyderms.

           Zimbabwe baby                      PAWS pic

Two kinds of elephants live in our world, African (the largest, with ears shaped like the African continent) and Asian (slightly smaller overall, with ears shaped like India).  African elephants have one head hump and concave backs; both sexes have tusks. Asian elephants have two head humps and convex or level backs; only  most males have tusks.

Elephants are all herbivorous, with massive legs and long trunks.  They are matrilineal herd animals.

Overall, elephants are widely viewed as one of Earth’s most intelligent animals, according to National Geographic.  “They have a highly evolved neocortex, similar to humans, great apes, and some dolphin species. They demonstrate a wide variety of behaviors associated with high intelligence, including compassion, mimicry, grief, altruism, use of tools, and self-awareness.”

Nothing more to say except . . . Save the Elephants!  (www.savetheelephants.org/)

Toucan talk

“And now for something completely different”: the toucan, a South and Central American bird with a bill that won’t quit.  My interest was prompted by a Dodo video about a toucan (too-CAN) entering a house and visiting the nursery of an expected child – seen as a good omen for the baby.

                        Toucan                Peter Cavanagh pic

But I couldn’t get over that bill: is it heavy, does it come with teeth?  Is it used as a  weapon, or what? How does the bird keep from toppling over? 

Birds can’t cool off in the ways humans can, but evolution has provided an alternative to the largest species, the Toco Toucan, whose bill, relative to its body size, is the largest of any bird in the world. It accounts for a full third of the body’s entire surface area.  It’s also laced with blood vessels and has no insulation – features that make it a great structure for getting rid of excess body heat. 

Blood pumps into the toucan’s bill all the time and as the weather heats up, the blood travels farther out and the heat escapes through the bill’s thin outer layer. With a nice breeze, the toucan can release virtually all its excess body heat, thereby staying cool even in tropical heat.

Here’s an enjoyable, colorful short video from the San Diego zoo: https://kids.sandiegozoo.org/videos/toco-toucans

Get ready, get set. . .

These shelter-at-home months have forestalled much would-be activism for animals.  But major behind-the-scenes work has continued so that plans and programs are ready once they can go live.  It’s almost that time! 

 

The Animal Protection League of New Jersey, with numbers of allies, will soon issue a call to animal advocates, urging us to jump back in on campaigns for animals.  Watch for the next post here, with the details we’ve all been waiting for.      

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Elephants: extraordinary & irreplaceable treasures!

"Elephants form deep bonds with each other, which last for decades.  Elephant survival is strongly affected by access to the social and ecological knowledge that older elephants hold; where to go, what to eat, how to avoid danger.”  -- Dr. Cynthia Moss, Director & Founder, Ambroseli Trust for Elephants, Kenya  (elephanttrust.org)

Sateo, iconic tusker                         Richard Moller pic

Luckily for the elephants who travel with a matriarch, they can depend on her memory and leadership. UNluckily for them if she is killed, and all that wisdom is lost – although sometimes a younger femalesteps up to lead the family herd.  While it’s probably not wholly true that “an elephant never forgets,” they reportedly come pretty close. 

And while elephants are not scared of mice (eek!) – as claimed in Pliny the Elder’s Natural History, in the first century A.D. -- they are frightened of bees.  That fact has helped scientists “train” them away from crops needed by the African farmers who planted them, and possibly save them from farmers’ lethal revenge.

Fascinated by elephants along with many of his fellow Romans, Pliny thought that of all animals, they were the most like humans in sensibility.  Today’s extensive knowledge of elephants supports his judgment (elephants are intelligent and sociable; they grieve at the remains of other elephants and they are self-aware – that is, they recognize their own reflections in a mirror). 

With feelings and behaviors some might believe are strictly human, elephants keep confounding those who hold human-centered beliefs.

     Asian elephant family                                       HSI pic 

Humans’ treatment of elephants ranges from Save the Elephants and the Elephant Crisis Fund (see previous post) and those who so valued elephants that during this pandemic, they laboriously moved one 50-year old Asian elephant 1,700 miles from an Argentinian zoo to a sanctuary in Brazil . . . down to the lowest of the low: poachers who slaughter elephants for ivory and profit.  

ttps://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/09/science/coronavirus-elephants-wildlife-zoo.html?campaign_id=34&emc=edit_sc_20200811&instance_id=21166&nl=science-times&regi_id=20760274&segment_id=35756&te=1&user_id=a360dad7b26df61ea65737080d3deedd

In observing World Elephant Day (Aug. 12), PAWS, the Performing Animal Welfare Society, celebrated the eight elephants now living at its California site --five “ripped from their free-living mothers and families and sold into captivity” and all rescued or retired from circuses or zoos.

“Elephants simply do not thrive in captivity, where they suffer serious captivity-related ailments, have shorter lifespans, breed poorly, and experience high infant mortality rates.  Captive populations are simply not sustainable.”  That’s why PAWS urges us to take action to protect elephants both in the wild and in captivity.

               African elephants                                            NYT pic

Read all about them 

Of the many books about elephants, these two were recommended to me: 

·        An Elephant in My Kitchen: What the Herd Taught Me About Love, Courage and Survival, by Francoise Malby-Anthony.  After her husband died unexpectedly, the author continued their work alone at Thula Thula, the South African game preserve they had founded.  In a country with few women in authority, her limited ability to speak the native language was another hurdle to success.  Not only did she save their elephant herd, but also managed to open a nursery for orphaned baby elephants and others.  (sequel to Lawrence Anthony’s The Elephant Whisperer)

·        The White Bone, by Barbara Gowdy, a “complex, meditative and deeply sad” novel told wholly from the point of view of elephants.  “As layered as any human family epic,” wrote a reviewer of the “intimately imagined social hierarchy and inner lives of the pachyderms.”  

Baby elephant                                     PAWS pic 

Please note:  Links included in my blog posts are more than the dry footnotes you might expect. They’re usually videos and other materials that complement the text, and are sometimes just fun.  Typically, besides being the sources of quotes I’ve used, they offer more info on the topic at hand.  I hope you’ll check them out each time.  For instance, here are two links you shouldn't miss.  

(Elephant Crisis Fund)  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B1KhOTsMxeQ&feature=emb_title

(We Love Elephants!)  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQwETI_gkMw&feature=youtu.be

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‘Save the elephants’ & ‘Elephant crisis fund’ say it all

The world's largest land-living mammal can travel 30-40 mph, and “when in distress will weep salt tears.”  

                                                            Save the Elephants pic

“The shape of an African elephant’s ear is the shape of Africa; the shape of an Indian elephant’s ear is the shape of India, as if nature had kept an ear to the ground when listening to the elephant’s territorial requests.”  

Yes, this is about elephants, missing for too long from these blog posts.  Elephants, who go back to antiquity, mythologized and admired since then.  But now, in our selfish, cruel world, they are poached and slaughtered for their body parts, captured for display in zoos (falsely claimed to be conservation efforts), forced into entertainment and animal slave labor, orphaned as babies and robbed of elephant knowledge and culture – all acts leaving them without the safety and security they deserve.     

Sacred Elephant is Heathcote Williams’s long poem in praise of elephants’ nature and in despair at their threatened extinction.  Contrasting the elephant’s noble and intelligent qualities over time with its endangered life now, the poem is sad beyond words.

Caretaker with orphan

I have listened to the poem on CD (beautifully read by the poet) numerous times while driving, but only when I’ve felt resilient to start with.  With this pandemic-depression underway, it’s been even harder to bear.

Side 1, the poem itself, is full of quotable quotes and astonishing facts about elephants.  Side 2 is filled with even more information about them, read by Harry Burton and Caroline Webster; she in particular does a magnificent job.

Naïve as it may be, I wish whenever I listen to it that Sacred Elephant’s content and presentation could change the hearts and minds of those intent on ivory and money.  But I know that advocacy and

activism are what it will take to make a difference for elephants.

For some years now, Save the Elephants (SaveTheElephants.org) has been an organization I believe in and help when I can.  Partnering with the San Francisco-based Wildlife Conservation Network (WCN) about six years ago, it started the Elephant Crisis Fund (SaveTheElephants.org/project/elephant-crisis-fund/). 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B1KhOTsMxeQ&feature=emb_title

We in the US can support that fund through the WCN.  Read the 2020 ECF mid-year report here 

In case a reminder is needed, here are a few reasons to “save the elephants”: (1) Elephants are Africa’s gardeners and landscape engineers, planting seeds and creating habitat wherever they roam.  (2) Without urgent action to save their species, elephants could disappear from the wild within a single generation.  (3) Approximately 100,000 elephants in Africa were killed for their ivory in just three years between the years 2010 & 2012.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQwETI_gkMw&feature=youtu.be

            Galena and Gawa                           Dodo pic

Last February I wrote to a Save the Elephants rep with two questions I couldn’t answer for myself.   Here are those questions with answers:  

Q -- in what African countries are elephants found? (I'm assuming any count would include both forest and savanna elephants.)

A -- African elephants are found across the continent.  Their numbers are high in much of Southern Africa, with Botswana holding the largest population and much of the smaller populations in Western Africa.

Q -- about how many elephants survive in Africa?  (I read various numbers.  And I know the total must change all too often, given the heinous poaching that continues there.) 

A -- There are roughly around 415,000 elephants left in Africa and another potential 113,000 in areas that are not well surveyed.

         “Elephants cannot be manufactured. Once they’re gone, they cannot be replaced.”

            – Dr. Iain Douglas-Hamilton, Founder and President of Save the Elephants

                                             Elephants in Botswana                                                                                     HSI pic

                                                                                                     

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LOTS more ‘Mr. Nice Guy,’ please!

Bonobo

We keep learning how close non-human animals and human animals truly are.  Now comes news about how humans – at least some of them – might learn a big lesson from the most successful animals:  be nice, sociable and cooperative, and share.  

Two scientists have asked just what Charles Darwin meant by “fittest” in “survival of the fittest.”  Did he refer to toughness and physical strength?  Or did he refer to friendliness, partnership and communication?  They concluded that the friendliest animals are the most likely ones to evolve and survive.

The dog is cited as an animal who adapted to fit in with humans, and who has survived and thrived. Another case: bonobos (“buh-NOW-bows”), who are apes often confused with chimpanzees, but way different from them. 

Chimps are aggressive and warlike, while bonobos, governed by females, share food with others and make love, not war.  The scientists found that “the friendliest male bonobo is more successful than the unfriendliest chimp,” and “The most successful bonobo males have more offspring than the most successful alpha male chimpanzees.”

Beagle puppy

Here’s their main point, and it clearly has practical application right here and now:  “Friendliness is the winning strategy. Social problems require social solutions. The secret to our species’ success is the same as it is with dogs and bonobos.

“We are the friendliest human species that ever evolved, which has allowed us to outcompete other human species that are now extinct. When that mechanism is turned off, we can become unbelievably cruel.  When it is turned on, it allows us to win.

“We win by cooperation and teamwork. Our uniquely human skills for cooperative communication can be used to solve the hardest social problems.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/science/friendliest-not-fittest-is-key-to-evolutionary-survival-scientists-argue-in-book/2020/07/17/6f70697e-c5fe-11ea-a99f-3bbdffb1af38_story.html?utm_campaign=wp_animalia&utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&wpisrc=nl_animalia  

Alike or not?

Blame it on the dog days of summer if you’d like, but here’s an animal observation that’s decidedly UN-scientific.  It’s based on years of watching and learning about the two animals involved. 

Iguana

St. Thomas, VI is my “soul home,” and that includes one of its signature inhabitants,  the iguana.  Decades of visits grew my fascination with iguanas, whom I’ve watched and studied all that time.  To me, they’re exotically beautiful.  

Here in New Jersey, I’ve long enjoyed watching squirrels, who I think are smart and fun – and who like the unsalted peanuts in shells I share with them.  Either I have them trained to come closer for treats, or they have me trained to provide snacks.

 Squirrel

Despite their being such markedly different species, these two animals have a lot in common besides my admiration.  Consider:  both creatures are low-slung, with long tail “rudders” that seem to balance their front ends.

There’s a definite resemblance in their stances and how both of them walk on all fours – squirrels are like furry iguanas!

OK, the heat has gone to my head and whimsy rules for now.  But it’s nice to know I have “related” animals I like so much in both real and soul homes.  

Sure picker-uppers

Whatever works to pick up pandemic-damaged spirits is welcome.  The latest suggestion I saw was to watch cute animal videos, something I’ve been doing for years, thanks to “The Dodo”  (thedodo.com).  

They’re not all “cute,” but most are happy stories that may also include useful info.  Here’s one recent example.   

https://thedodo.createsend1.com/t/ViewEmail/d/05F630B6183A154F2540EF23F30FEDED/B430F3161C52921ADCCB6820C4466A74

What are you doing to lift your spirits during these difficult days?  I hope you'll share what works for you.

 

                                                                                       Dodo pic

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