elephant (Page 2)

…and how they save their herds from starvation – Elephants are amazing creatures. The legends say that elephants “never forget,” and a new study suggests that old female elephants?and perhaps their memories of distant, life-sustaining sources of food and water?may be the key to the survival of their herds during periods of famine and drought.

Researcher Charles Foley says, “Our findings seem to support the hypothesis that older females with knowledge of distant resources become crucial to the survival of herds during periods of extreme climatic events.”
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Western aid to Africa helps these countries build roads, which are greatly needed to distribute food and medicine. But these new roads also make it easier for ivory poachers to reach the interior and kill large numbers of elephants.

In LiveScience.com, Jeanna Bryner quotes biologist Stephen Blake as saying, “Unmanaged roads are highways of death for forest elephants?It is not the physical effect of the road that is the issue?forest elephants actually like roadside vegetation?rather it is the fact that unmanaged roads bring people, with their guns and ammunition.”
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African elephants are being slaughtered for their ivory at a rate unprecedented since an international convention banning ivory trade took effect in 1989. If something isn?t done soon, we may not be able to save these magnificent creatures from extinction in the wild, and there will be only a few left, all of them living in zoos. This is all happening because of medicine in China, the same way the US causes the destructive drug trade in South America.
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Five years ago, we reported that a dolphin recognizes himself when it sees its image in a mirror. Now it has been discovered that elephants do too. Scientists think that this is a true test of self-awareness.

Peter Aldhous writes in New Scientist that recognizing your own image was thought to be something only humans were capable of. Those of us who have pets know that when a cat or dog sees itself in a mirror, it thinks that another animal is there and will sometimes try to attack it. People who have a single bird as a pet will often put a mirror in the cage so that the bird thinks there?s another bird there, keeping it company.
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