Yes, there were elephants in Vietnam and they occasionally interfered with combat operations.
Posted on 04/30/2016 11:18:12 AM PDT by OddLane
It should be noted that Asian and African elephants are very different species. When you think of a friendly elephant who lives with a trainer for many years and are very helpful, working animals, those are Asian elephants.
If a wild African elephant sees you, it might very well chase you down to kill you. The effort to domesticate and train African elephants only began with the Belgians in the 19th Century. So while it *can* be done, it isn’t easy. The end result will be a trained *wild* animal, like a trained lion.
The author is dead wrong. We need to bulldoze all the ivory instead of selling it and using the money to go toward anti-poaching efforts.
Just kidding. He’s right on. I once shared an airplane row with a safari camp owner. We shared just this conversation how when there are authorized hunts and value, the elephants are valued and poaching is non-existent. It sounds like villagers and hunters police the poachers.
A legitimate trade in a legitimate item brings value.
I just hope nobody names one of the wild elephants and tries to give him human characteristics. The rat of the jungle.
Most elephants are Muslim, some Hindu.
Yes, there were elephants in Vietnam and they occasionally interfered with combat operations.
Buffalo (Bison) can be very profitable for meat. The problem is that they can’t be herded like cattle, they go where they want to. (a herd escaped here in NM’s east mountains and it took a long time to round them up.
“Because cows are profitable, buffalo are not.”
They cross cows and buffalo now (Beefalo). Unfortunately that doesn’t mean a Holstein the size of a minivan, just healthier meat and a hardier animal.
“Yes, there were elephants in Vietnam and they occasionally interfered with combat operations. “
Man, I’d hate to go up against a pissed off elephant with only a 5.56mm. It might be hard to explain using a LAW to the C.O., but I’d take the chance.
Actually, elephants are rather easily killed with the 5.56, and Asian elephants aren’t known to attack humans without cause (threatening their young). Where they posed a danger was when they were frightened they would panic and run, and if you were in the way, you got stepped on. I know of one man who was killed while lying beside a trail in an ambush position, and when the ambush was triggered a nearby elephant panicked, ran through the ambush, stepped on him, and killed him.
You can read more about Vietnam’s elephants in the story “My Valley” on this website: http://projectdelta.net/dry_hole.htm
Then why did they have to use great big "elephant guns?":
2-bore elephant rifle
Their hides are so thick they ignore barbed wire, hence they can't be fenced in economically.
Not to mention they can easily clear a six foot fence, on the off chance they don’t feel like walking through it.
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