Funny Elephant Stories

Here is Will and Guy’s collection of elephant tales, reports and amusing
stories.

• Marvellous and
  True Elephant Dentist Story
• Elephant’s Nest – True
  Story or Hoax?
• The Funny Story of Elephant Painting
• Elephants Check into Hotel
• Baby Pink Elephant Story
• The Blind Men and
  the Elephant Story
• Interesting Elephant
  Facts

Marvellous and True
Elephant Dentist Story

Devidasan, a 27-year-old bull elephant from the state of Kerala in India
has had his toothache removed much to his relief Will and Guy have learned.

Dentists say they have successfully repaired a working elephant’s cracked
tusk in the first operation of its kind. They performed the procedure on
Devidasa by filling the 50cm (19.6in) long, 4cm (1.5in) deep crack with 47
tubes of a special resin.

Amazingly, it appears that Devidasan was not tranquilised during the
two-and-a-half-hour operation and he was totally cooperative throughout the
procedure.

‘It was literally an elephantine task, because we had to find specialist
equipment and modify it,’ Dr Pradeep told us. Dr Pradeep, a professor at the
PSM dental college in the town of Trichur, said that if the crack remained
untreated dirt would have gathered inside it and potentially caused a deadly
infection.

Devidasan’s owner was eager to get the operation carried out because the
crack in the tusk meant that the animal could not be used in Hindu
festivals.

Now Devidasan has made a full recovery he has already made his comeback
in temple festivals throughout Kerala state.

Photos: Bronek Kaminski

Elephant’s Nest – True Story
or Hoax?

Logic says that elephants just don’t nest in trees.  Close inspection
reveals that the ‘Elephant’s nest’ is some way off the ground, thus the elephant
could not have just sat on bundle of sticks just off the ground.

When we magnified the picture it looks as though the tree is in sharp focus, but
the elephant is slightly blurred.  Could it be that someone transposed a
clear jpeg file of an elephant over another image of a very large nest?

However, when all is said and done, it would make a great picture to go with a
pub called: ‘The Elephant’s Nest’

The Funny Story of the Elephant Painting

Firstly, Five is an unusual name, especially for
an African Elephant.  Secondly Five has come up with an unusual use for her trunk – she uses it to paint!

With help from her keeper, Five has painted more than 50 works of art.  Painting experts
even think that
her unique contemporary style is worthy of an exhibition exhibition.  Even better, her masterpieces are in demand and you could buy one at the West Midland Safari Park in Bewdley, Worcestershire.

Back to that strange name, Five was one of three African Elephants that were brought to England from an elephant orphanage in South Africa – when she was five years old.  That was back in 1998, thus she is
14 going on 15 in 2007.  Elephant ages and maturity are not unlike humans, thus Five would now be considered a teenager in the elephant world.

Elephants Check Into Hotel –
Will and Guy Have the Report

It is not every day that guests in a hotel would expect to share the
foyer with an elephant, or even a herd of elephants. However, Will and
Guy have learned that in the Mfuwe Lodge in the 9,500 sq km South
Luangwa National Park in Zambia, it is a common occurrence. The herd,
numbering ten, is led to the lodge each day by the matriarch, Wonky
Tusk.

The hotel was unwittingly built on the route to the herd’s favourite
mango trees and the elephants have seen no reason to change the path
trodden by generations before them.

Andy Hogg, 44, director at Mfuwe Lodge, said the herd appears every
November as the mangoes ripen, ‘This is a totally natural phenomenon,
the elephants come here of their own accord and it is certainly a rare
but magnificent sight.’

Seeing Pink Elephants

If a friend tells you they are “seeing pink elephants”, then this is
serious.   What it means is they are suffering delirium tremens.
The condition and the accompanying hallucinations are caused by alcohol
poisoning.

Baby Pink Elephant Story

However, this cameraman, Mike Holding, had definitely not been drinking
when he captured these photos of a pink elephant in northern Botswana,
Africa. Experts believe it is probably an albino, which is an extremely rare
phenomenon in African elephants. While albinism is thought to be fairly
common in Asian elephants, it is much less common in the larger African
species.

Here we see the baby pink elephant attempting to shelter under its mother
because surviving is very difficult in the harsh African bush as the glaring
sun may cause blindness and skin problems.

Rare baby pink elephant, incidentally, his brother looks like dumbo!

Elephants Story – Road Block in Sri Lanka

The Sri Lankan Daily News has informed Will and Guy that a herd of wild
elephants blocked the access road for voters heading to vote in polling booths
in Wellaveli, eastern Sri Lanka. Security forces had to use loud hailers to
drive away the wild elephants after the villagers, in Wellaveli, complained that
they were unable to vote. The police and army were able to draw away the herd
after a few hours and said the roads have now apparently been cleared.

Elephants
Get Their Boots

Two Asian elephants been fitted with breathable waterproof boots to relieve chronic foot lesions.  Keepers a the at Singapore zoo tried acupuncture and compresses, but the were not as effective as the
boots.  Vets fitted the female elephants Jamilah and Tun with the special boots.  Tun, 20, has one front leg longer than the other.  Her problems started when a male elephant mounted her and
caused her to buckle.

More Elephant Care

Mocha, a female Indian elephant, lost her right front leg when she stood on a
landmine on the Thai-Myanmar border.  Mocha was severely injured and
might have had to be put down.

Experts at the Friends of the Asian Elephant Hospital in northern Thailand’s
Lampang province have come to her aid and manufactured and fitted a false leg.

The artificial limb is made from canvas the vets are  hoping she can soon
be set safely free on her own four feet again.  Will and Guy hope that when
she is released Mocha will have a full and happy life, safe from poachers.

The Blind Men and the
Elephant Story

American poet John Godfrey Saxe (1816-1887) based this poem on a fable
that has been told in India for countless generations.  It is a parable
explaining how our senses can lead to serious misinterpretations.

The Six Blind Men And An Elephant

It was six men of Indostan
To learning much inclined,
Who went to
see the Elephant
(Though all of them were blind),
That each by
observation
Might satisfy his mind

The First approached the Elephant,
And happening to fall
Against
his broad and sturdy side,
At once began to bawl:
“God bless me! but
the Elephant
Is very like a wall!”

The Second, feeling of the tusk,
Cried, “Ho! what have we here
So
very round and smooth and sharp?
To me ’tis mighty clear
This wonder
of an Elephant
Is very like a spear!”

The Third approached the animal,
And happening to take
The
squirming trunk within his hands,
Thus boldly up and spake:
“I see,”
quoth he, “the Elephant
Is very like a snake!”

The Fourth reached out an eager hand,
And felt about the knee.
“What most this wondrous beast is like
Is mighty plain,” quoth he;
“
‘Tis clear enough the Elephant
Is very like a tree!”

The Fifth, who chanced to touch the ear,
Said: “E’en the blindest man

Can tell what this resembles most;
Deny the fact who can
This
marvel of an Elephant
Is very like a fan!”

The Sixth no sooner had begun
About the beast to grope,
Than,
seizing on the swinging tail
That fell within his scope,
“I see,”
quoth he, “the Elephant
Is very like a rope!”

And so these men of Indostan
Disputed loud and long,

Each in his own opinion
Exceeding stiff and strong,
Though each
was partly in the right,
And all were in the wrong!

Moral of The Elephant Story

So oft in theologic wars,
The disputants, I ween,
Rail on in
utter ignorance
Of what each other mean,
And prate about an Elephant

Not one of them has seen!

Interesting Facts About
Elephants

• A group of elephants can be called a ‘memory of elephants’, although a
  herd is a more common collective noun.  On a related theme, elephants
  follow cattle in that the females, males and offspring are called, cows,
  bulls and calves respectively.
• The elephant’s memory is legendary, what is not so well known is they
  have a special ceremony for greeting a long lost member of the herd.  In this
  greeting ceremony both elephants flap their ears, trumpet and generally
  express joy.
• It would be easy to be fooled into thinking that elephants drank through
  their trunks; in fact they use the trunk as a funnel to collect water, but
  then pour it into their mouth.  Sometimes elephants choose to spray
  themselves with the water rather than drinking it.  Incidentally, there
  are no bones in an elephant’s trunk.
• An elephant detective could track an elephant by following their individual
  footprints.  What would help such stalking is the elephant’s habit of
  using the same paths as their ancestors.
• Elephants display ‘right-handedness’, not in their limbs, but in the
  tusks.  Close examination of an elephant’s tusks will reveal that one
  tusk has a blunter tip and is thicker than its less favoured counterpart.  The
  reason for this difference is that in their natural habitat elephants use their tusk(s) for
  gathering food, and digging for water.  Consequently the tusk on their favourite becomes more developed, but blunter.
• Elephant’s ivory poses a terrible dilemma, it’s a wonderful and
  versatile material, but the fact that tusks are so valuable encourages
  poaching.  It seems particularly obscene to think of such a noble,
  sensitive, joyous animal suffering at the hands of barbaric poachers.
  All that Will and Guy can do about it is not to buy anything made of ivory.
• The gestation period of mammals is in proportion to their size.
  Thus, pregnancy in mice lasts about 21 days, whereas in elephants it takes
  over 21 months.
• March 13th is National Thai Elephant Day.  While September 22nd is
  Elephant Appreciation Day.

Footnote:
Please send us your funny elephant stories.