This incident, which must have happened yesterday, is going viral. The video shows two Indian elephants saving a drowning baby who fell into a pool in a Seoul zoo; they do it by working together to push the baby into the shallow end. There’s simply no doubt about their intentions. Sure, nature can be cruel, but it also can be kind.
Pair of elephants save calf from drowning
June 20, 2017 • 3:00 pm
Oh, you meant a baby ELEPHANT!
Tripped me up, too!
Me too.
Sorry about my interfering with the English language, which is not the one I know best, but the title of the post says calf. 🙂
It’s more amazing that the other elephant came to the rescue
The third elephant in the background (in enclosure) going nuts during the incident.
I noticed that too. I bet he would have joined in.
Fascinating. Hard to doubt their intelligence or emotions when you things like this (supposing you were inclined to). Behaviorally that scene could not be distinguished from the same event involving humans.
Yep. Including the frantic can’t-do-anything helpful-because-he’s-blocked bull* in the back ground. We can imagine and feel the frustration he must have felt at the distress of the baby and the other elephants.
*? I see tusks and female Asian usually lack them.
Oh dear. That’s ripe for misuse. I meant; “…female Asian elephants…”
Interesting how quickly the adults determined a strategy after just a few seconds of panic.
I would have been nice to have audio of the event. I wonder if the almost instant reaction of the male was triggered by the sound of splashing or was a response to calls from the baby or mom.
What is the deal with the music on these things? Half of the videos i watch these days have music that makes you want to hit the mute button!
That’s why I keep the computer mute except in rare moments when I want it to make noise.
Me too. I have enough noise in my life!
When I see stories like these I think of Christians who are offended when told they are animals, or related to them. I prefer to be related to animals, than many humans.
Me too.
Me three.
Some lions eat the offspring of the male they have driven off.
Waste not, want not!
Or, want not, waste not!
I can imagine there are a few animals not too pleased about being related to Christians.
Wonderful.
I am curious though about the elephant’s gait at 00:38. I can’t tell if the animal stumbles or purposely lowers the limb to gain purchase in order to nudge the other elephant in the right direction.
Mike
gain purchase? Get a grip.
The most amazing part of this is how the other elephant almost immediately reacted and ran over to help.
The second elephant seemed to have a better idea what to do than the first did.
It does look that way. So what we have is one animal noticing not only the problem of the calf but also noticing the other adult’s behavior needs help in order to effect a rescue.
Remarkable.
Mike
Mike, Did you check out the replay @ about 00:50? The gait anomaly appears to be in control…Almost like an athletic stretch.
This also occurred after the ‘sub-tonal vibrational trunk chat’ . . . As Ecologist Caitlin O’Connell noted there’s a lot of synchronicity with elephants with respect to feet and trunk. In her research she points out that synchronized freezing & precisely coordinated movement is common even among herds of 20 or more elephants.
O’Connell writes, “Bulls often lay their trunks on the ground when freezing. We think they may be using them as tools to detect vibrations in the earth.”
(O’Connell has consistently noticed an inexplicable listening behavior — as if elephants could “hear” the ground — and chronicled it in her nature documentary turned prose: The Elephant’s Secret Sense she notes, “synchronized freezing & remaining motionless appears to enable the animals to focus a very special sense to detect vibrations in the earth.”)
I think elephants are a great case study in interacting with an “alien” intelligence.