Elephants intuiting a human friend's death !

[ajay0]

I recently came across an interesting story of a South African conservationist named Lawrence Anthony. He was known for his work amongst elephants.

It is said that just after Lawrence's death in his house, a group of elephants marched their way to his house for 12 hours, and hung around for two days before making their way to the bush. There is a number of reports in this regard.

When The Elephants Came To Mourn The Elephant Whisperer

ANTHONY LAWRENCE ~ THE ELEPHANT WHISPERER Lawrence Anthony, who died aged 61, was a South African conservationist, known as “The Elephant Whisperer”. In his native South Africa, Anthony was a key f…

protectallwildlifeblog.com

” For two days the herds loitered at Anthony’s rural compound on the vast Thula Thula game reserve in the South African KwaZulu — to say good-bye to the man they loved. But how did they know he had died?

 

[HonestJoe]

There is always a risk of projecting our own emotions on to animals in this kind of situation. There is no evidence the elephants actually knew he'd died, though they would have known he hadn't come out to see them in a while. Elephants are intelligent animals and that intelligence is sufficient to explain their behaviour.

 

[ChristineM]

There is always a risk of projecting our own emotions on to animals in this kind of situation. There is no evidence the elephants actually knew he'd died, though they would have known he hadn't come out to see them in a while. Elephants are intelligent animals and that intelligence is sufficient to explain their behaviour.

Elephants are one of the few animals that grieve. There are many documented cases where elephants have mourned their aid/trainer/even stranger who has died in the bush.

 

[HonestJoe]

Elephants are one of the few animals that grieve. There are many documented cases where elephants have mourned their aid/trainer/even stranger who has died in the bush.

Oh yes, I'm aware of that, I was specifically challenging the implication that their behaviour in this case could only be explained by them somehow gaining specific information via means unknown. Grieving an definitive death and grieving an unexplained disappearance would likely look very similar.

 

[ChristineM]

Oh yes, I'm aware of that, I was specifically challenging the implication that their behaviour in this case could only be explained by them somehow gaining specific information via means unknown. Grieving an definitive death and grieving an unexplained disappearance would likely look very similar.

I assume their phenomenal sense of smell gives an indication.

 

[YoursTrue]

I recently came across an interesting story of a South African conservationist named Lawrence Anthony. He was known for his work amongst elephants.

It is said that just after Lawrence's death in his house, a group of elephants marched their way to his house for 12 hours, and hung around for two days before making their way to the bush. There is a number of reports in this regard.

When The Elephants Came To Mourn The Elephant Whisperer

ANTHONY LAWRENCE ~ THE ELEPHANT WHISPERER Lawrence Anthony, who died aged 61, was a South African conservationist, known as “The Elephant Whisperer”. In his native South Africa, Anthony was a key f…

protectallwildlifeblog.com

You really think or believe the elephants knew this man died and "came to say goodbye" to him?

 

[YoursTrue]

I assume their phenomenal sense of smell gives an indication.

You really think they developed this sense of smell by magic? I mean the magic of evolution???

 

[ajay0]

Going through some of Anthony's sayings from his books, I found some which were in sync with the above incident...

Lawrence Anthony Quotes (Author of Lyrical Foreplay)

60 quotes from Lawrence Anthony: 'The only good cage is an empty cage.', 'But perhaps the most important lesson I learned is that there are no walls between humans and the elephants except those that we put up ourselves, and that until we allow not only elephants, but all living creatures their...

www.goodreads.com

“The wrong way to go about this is to say: Well, researchers have ‘proved’ that animals only understand fifty words or something similarly absurd. Or that communication with other species is an illusion. Communication is not the preserve of humans; it is the one thing that is truly universal.”


“Years later I was in the Sudan on a conservation project when I heard an incredible story on good authority that sounded similar to my own. During the twenty-year war between northern and southern Sudan elephants were being slaughtered both for ivory and meat and so large numbers migrated to Kenya for safety. Within days of the final ceasefire being signed, the elephants left their adopted residence en masse and trekked the hundreds of miles back home to Sudan. How they knew that their home range was now safe is just another indication of the incredible abilities of these amazing creatures.”