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.