Posted on 02/15/2014 5:03:12 PM PST by ilovesarah2012
This is a video of Suda the elephant painting a self-portrait. It is real. One of Suda's paintings sold for $25,000.
(Excerpt) Read more at youtube.com ...
Indian Elephants are very intelligent.
There are some animals I don;t think we should kill for sport and elephants, especially Indian elephants are one of them.
I would be a bit more impressed if there was not a human in the scene who seems to be directing the action.
Loves me some Heffalumps. Very smart creatures.
Great doco that I found a while ago
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w30hgwFkXd8
The Indian / Asiatic Elephant is more closely related to the Woolly Mammoth than the African Elephant is.
I would agree.
Liberals do not make my list, specifically liberal politicians..........
I agree. Makes me sick to think elephants are killed for their tusks. I am not the PETA type (except People Eating Tasty Animals), but some animals are just so much like humans, maybe more than I realize. The more I learn about elephants, the more amazed I am by them. Here is another really sweet video. I read that Jenny died a few years ago, though.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lF8em4uPdCg
I would be more impressed if the elephant would drive to the art supply store and buy the paints and brushes and canvas, but I don’t think that is gonna happen. The fact that the elephant can paint at all is amazing to my little mind.
I read that the elephant actually does the painting and makes the brush strokes, but none of them do that without a handler giving them direction by tugging on their ears to signal direction to be made for the paintbrush, or signaling in some other way for the elephant to make the movements. So it is both elephant and human making the painting. Moreover, the elephants who paint specialize (some do flowers for example), but there is no creativity on the part of the elephant. It is, however, amazing to watch the elephants do this.
Someone could pull on my ear and I still couldn’t draw an elephant! LOL
I was quite impressed. Of course, I think if you could get a dog to hold the paintbrush, he could paint Lassie!
I’d side with your analysis. I don’t believe any creatures are sentient and able to symbolize themselves or their environment.
How Elephants Learn To Paint
Do elephants really have a natural ability to paint?
The first part of the answer lies in the elephants physical attributes. Their trunk has an estimated 40-50,000 muscles, at least 63 times more than the entire human body. It is most sensitive and extremely flexible. At the tip of its trunk, the Asian elephant has a prehensile extension, called a finger, which helps perform delicate tasks and pick up very small objects.
Elephants have been observed for many years, both in captivity and in the wild, to use sticks and make drawings in the sand. So the transition from a branch to a paint brushes is simply using another tool.
How do elephants learn to paint? Just like humans do. Any artist first learned how to hold a brush and how to use it for specific effects. That is also the process the elephant goes through. His/her mahout (caretaker) teaches his elephant these steps. The picture below shows an elephant taking an art lesson.
http://www.artist-animals.com/art/ele-learn.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xbL_W48YhtM
Monkey who paints wows Canada
Elephants seem to have more talent that monkeys.
Elephants appear to be sentient, or sensitive, creatures. They exhibit close bonds with the other elephants in their herd. They celebrate when one of their family returns after an absence, they rejoice when a baby is born and they grieve when a member of their elephant family dies.
Read more: Are elephants sentient? | Answerbag http://www.answerbag.com/q_view/2217349#ixzz2tS0HKKcj
Oh yeah! Here’s an elephant I drew just using periods on the computer
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It’s abstract art.
LOL
I like it, but not sure I’d pay $25K for it!
How about a buck seventeen and a new shoelace? Pulled too hard on one today and it broke. The shoelace, not the money. My new business isn’t going so good. Cat Suspenders. I guess they all want leather belts or something.
If I had a clearer shot of what the human is doing in the video, I would not be so cynical. How much is he actually guiding the elephant’s trunk.
And how do you know he didn’t drive to the store?
Because they have small cars in Thailand.
True. But he does have a roomy trunk.
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