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She didn’t avoid the elephant in the room. Former Vice President Kamala Harris emerged from political hibernation to deliver a stern rebuke of President Trump — before bizarrely shifting focus to a lighthearted video of elephants at the San Diego Zoo during an earthquake. “A lot of folks are wondering what’s going to guide us through this moment. How are we all going to figure out how to chart the course,” Harris said during her Wednesday address at Emerge’s 20th anniversary gala in San Francisco. “Please allow me, friends, to digress for a moment.” “Okay, it’s kind of dark in...

The tourist - 22-year-old Blanca Ojanguren García - was bathing the elephant at the Koh Yao Elephant Care Centre in southern Thailand when she was attacked by the animal. This has renewed concerns over Thailand's booming elephant tourism industry, which animal rights groups have long criticised as unethical and dangerous. Activists say that elephant bathing is disruptive to natural grooming behaviours and could injure the animals, exposing them to unnecessary stress. ... García sustained a head injury - and later died in the hospital - after the elephant, 45-year-old female Phang Somboon, pushed her with its tusk. Her boyfriend, who...

The Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute community is mourning the loss of Kamala, beloved member of its Asian elephant herd and ambassador for her species. After a decade of managing and treating Kamala’s osteoarthritis, animal care staff recently noted her physical condition had irreversibly declined. They elected to humanely euthanize her Nov. 1. Born in the wild, Kamala was estimated to be around 50 years old, which is considered advanced age for this species. The elephant care team fondly remembers Kamala as a smart and inquisitive individual who held a dominant role within the herd. She built strong...

According to an IFL Science report, a new study of fossils of the giant elephant Palaeoloxodon turkmenicus discovered in 2000 in northern India's Kashmir Valley suggests that hominins extracted marrow from the bones between 300,000 and 400,000 years ago. Advait Jukar of the Florida Museum of Natural History explained that he and his colleagues identified a bone flake formed by repeated hammering with stone implements, presumably some of the 87 stone tools discovered alongside the bones. "Initially, the bone was struck several times in an attempt to initiate the fracture," Jukar said. "However, these initial attempts failed, requiring a subsequent,...

Kamala, a longtime member of the Smithsonian’s National Zoo’s Asian elephant herd, was euthanized Saturday in D.C. following years of struggling with osteoarthritis. Even while measures were taken over the last several years to preserve Kamala’s health and quality of life, her physical condition had irreversibly declined, the Smithsonian said in a news release.

FacebookTwitterWhatsAppFlipboardLinkedInRedditEmailShare The government is considering culling its elephant population to address food shortages and combat the effects of an El Niño-induced drought. Farai Maguwu, Director of the Center for Natural Resource Governance, expressed concerns that the proposal to cull elephants would attract widespread condemnation, much like Namibia's decision. Zimbabwe has about 100,000 elephants with a carrying capacity of about 45,000 and is unable to sell some of the jumbos because of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES). The country is among five southern African nations heavily impacted by the drought, leaving millions food-insecure. Namibia's decision to cull...

Names are universal throughout human cultures and across different languages. They form a huge part of our identity and help us communicate with each other, but personal names are considered a uniquely human thing. Now, new research has suggested that wild African elephants could address each other with individual specific calls – the equivalent of a name – with fascinating implications for the evolution of language. The new research analyzed calls from wild elephants in two areas of Kenya: the greater Samburu ecosystem to the north, and the Amboseli National Park to the south. The final dataset contained around 470...

BUTTE, Mont. — Montana is known for plenty of large wildlife, like bears, mountain goats and elk. But elephants are a new one. Butte resident Mataya Smith was driving south on Harrison Avenue with her husband, who alerted her to the strange scene at noon on Tuesday. “I though he just meant it was in the parking lot. And then I looked up and was like, ‘No, there is an elephant in the road!’” said Smith. “My coworker pointed out, ‘There’s an elephant!’ Started jumping up and down, pointing out the window,” Civic Center Town Pump co-manager Josh Hannifin said....

Shocking video captured the moment a 5-ton bull elephant in Zambia charged at a safari vehicle — flipping it over several times and killing an 80-year-old American woman during an expedition. The unidentified woman was among six tourists with the group Wilderness Zambia who were out on a photography tour Saturday when they came under attack by the crazed beast, the Telegraph reported. “At around 9:30 a.m. on Saturday morning the six guests were on the game drive when the vehicle was unexpectedly charged by the bull elephant,” Wilderness Zambia CEO Keith Vincent said in a statement

The accident and pachyderm reprisal occurred Sunday night in Gerik, a region about 300 kilometres north of Kuala Lumpur... Police said the car was “negotiating a left bend on the highway” in drizzle and fog when it hit the baby elephant. “The car slammed into the young elephant that was walking on the road with the herd,” said Zulkifli Mahmood, Chief Superintendent at Gerik District Police. The calf then fell to the ground, he added. “Seeing this, the other (five) elephants rushed towards the car and started trampling it.” No (human) injuries were reported in the incident, but police photos...

An illustration of early humans hunting an elephant using spears. (courtesy Tel Aviv University) When elephants started disappearing from the Middle East some 400,000 years ago, it was a major crisis, and not just for the ancient elephants. Early humans across the region, including in what is now Israel, depended on elephants for their diet. Eventually, humans adapted, learning how to hunt smaller prey such as bison, deer and gazelles, until those, too, disappeared from the landscape or their numbers were too small to hunt. This forced humans to adapt to even smaller prey such as rabbits and birds, and,...

A “killer” elephant has reportedly claimed its eleventh victim, an auto-rickshaw driver, after rampaging through Indian villages. The elephant has reportedly killed 11 people and destroyed 300 houses and shops across the southern Indian states of Kerala and Tamil Nadu in recent years. Arikomban, translated to “rice tusker”, was named by locals can after his fondness raiding rice shops. He has been caught several times and relocated to nature reserves but activists have fought to free him.

Baby elephant disrupting a TV reporter.I hate it when this happens.

An elephant trampled a woman to death in India, only to return during her funeral to pull her body off a pyre and trample over her corpse again. The incident was said to have occurred in the eastern Indian state of Odisha on Thursday, and comes amid rising animal-human conflict in the country. Maya Murmu, 70, was targeted by a wild elephant that had strayed from a nearby wildlife sanctuary while collecting water in the district of Mayurbhanj. Despite being rushed to hospital, the elderly woman succumbed to her injuries in hospital and her body was placed on a funeral...

Gov. Tom Wolf is calling on policymakers to “be open to the things that work” to address gun violence “but we cannot ignore the elephant in the room and that is guns.” During an interview on Pittsburgh-based KDKA radio on Tuesday morning, Wolf reacted to last week’s mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, and a weekend shooting that killed an 18-month-old Pittsburgh boy saying a combination of measures are what he sees as needed.

Researchers at Cambridge University have developed a video game which teaches people how to spread misinformation about Covid-19. The aim of Go Viral! is to make it easier for players to spot fake news in the future.

ZIMPARKS spokesperson Tinashe Farawo said Michael Bernard Walsh (71) was killed while taking an unguided tour with his son in Mana Pools National park in the north of the country. The two had walked about 40 meters from where they had parked their car when they encountered the elephants, with one of them charging at them, Farawo said. The son managed to escape and reach the car while Walsh could not outrun the elephant which trampled him to death.

Ratchadawan Puengprasopporn said her family was asleep when she heard noises coming from the kitchen. When she and her husband went to investigate, they saw the elephant poking its head into her kitchen, rummaging through the shelves and eating a plastic bag containing food. This isn’t the first intrusion she’s had from Boonmee, a wild male elephant in his forties known among residents and park officials as a frequent visitor to the village. Local authorities and national parks officials visited Ratchadawan and her family the next day and advised her to remove food, especially anything salty. Pattarapol Maneeon, a veterinarian...

A groom in Prayagraj city of India’s Uttar Pradesh made a dramatic entry at his wedding venue in a horse-drawn chariot. To add some extra zing to his entry, the groom also booked a decked-up elephant to be part of his entourage.Footage from the wedding has gone viral, capturing the moments when the elephant lost its calm and charged at the people around it. The animal can be seen going on a rampage, damaging decorations and vehicles in the parking lot of the lit venue.VIDEOPeople can be seen running around seeking cover, while the groom jumps out of his chariot...

A Milwaukee man tried to break into the elephant enclosure at a local zoo to “impress his daughter,” authorities said. Armond Bullocks allegedly climbed over a locked fenced area in the outdoor exhibit at the Milwaukee County Zoo, around closing time on Wednesday, local outlets reported. He then began to scale a second fence — but was stopped by park workers before reaching the zoo’s two African elephants, officials said.