Self-recognition in elephants

Elephants have been reported to recognize themselves in mirrors. Read the article here. Very cool. The only other animals that have this self-awareness are humans, great apes, and dolphins.

Emotional Lives of Elephants

I thought this was very interesting. And I have read of previous instances about the emotional lives of elephants. Dying Elephant Elicits Compassion.

Elephants are just too smart and emotional to be used for entertainment purposes (well really all animals are). That’s why you see footage and stuff about elephants going crazy and attacking at circuses etc. And then they have to shoot the elephant when its not his fault to begin with.

Elephant mourning

This is an interesting article about elephants and how they react to their dead. I always thought elephants were very emotional animals. They have very close social bonds so it makes sense that they would react someway to their dead. I’ve seen on documentaries that some elephants start rampaging when a close family member is killed.

Elephants & Hobbits

Here’s an article on Elephants that use mimicry. Zoologists have noticed some elephants making car and truck noises, along with various other machines. Interesting, eh? Also, read about the new hominin species Homo floresiensis. This is really a huge discovery! Not only is it a new species of human, but it is evidence that humans too are under the forces of island pressure and shows the power of an isolated environment on natural selection. Here are some links. “Hobbit” Brains; Photos of the fossils; News story about the discovery; Wikipedia entry w/ links.