Re: Dangerous game versus dangerouser game

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No words but AWESOME! I spent a summer in Quebec as a teenager at a place called Parc Safari in the late 80s and got to work with the elephants there. Amazing animals. Their ability to be incredibly gentle is marked only by their contrasting and seemingly impossible strength. Watched an agitated elephant snap full grown trees like toothpicks one morning, just walking into them with her head like they weren't there. Her adopted baby was getting a bath and making ruckus...
Be sure to make good choices when you're being stupid...

Re: Dangerous game versus dangerouser game

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Impressive animals, elephants. I have often wondered why they are not crowned "King of the Jungle" over lions.

My wife told me that in India, elephants will sometimes kill their handlers. Generally, the cruel ones get it the worst. That the elephants are quite clever at giving the illusion they are under your control -then BAM!, they smack you in the head and grab you and stomp on you. And Asian/Indian elephants are much smaller than African elephants. Interestingly, she said the ones used for processions/parades seem more prone to killing their handlers than the ones used for labor (they use them as tractors and load haulers).
The symbol of the race ought to be a human being carrying an ax, for every human being has one concealed about him somewhere, and is always seeking the opportunity to grind it.
- Mark Twain, a Biography

Re: Dangerous game versus dangerouser game

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mahkagari wrote:
virtualhabitat wrote:Impressive animals, elephants. I have often wondered why they are not crowned "King of the Jungle" over lions.
Because they don't live in the jungle. But then, neither do lions.
My wife told me that in India, elephants will sometimes kill their handlers. Generally, the cruel ones get it the worst. That the elephants are quite clever at giving the illusion they are under your control -then BAM!, they smack you in the head and grab you and stomp on you. And Asian/Indian elephants are much smaller than African elephants. Interestingly, she said the ones used for processions/parades seem more prone to killing their handlers than the ones used for labor (they use them as tractors and load haulers).
I've also heard that Asian elephants, you know, those ones that are going around killing handlers, are the more "trainable". Hence the Asian elephants in the background of "Coming to America".
In Kerala, where she grew up, elephants are extremely common. The temple in her village had several for processions and all sorts of companies and individuals have them for construction, land clearing, farming, timber production and even use them to carry produce to the market. If the handler is kind so is the elephant, generally. But like humans, no two elephants are the same. They each have unique personalities and temperaments. They also respond to cruelty in much the same way humans do -some submit, some submit for a while, and some never do. Before cars were affordable/available she said there was a guy who would come around with a giant tank trailer full of generator fuel pulled by an elephant. That elephant pulled the fuel cart for over twenty years until the man finally bought a truck. (electricity was not very reliable in the villages back then). Anyway, she said the man was nice to his elephant and she rode on top sometimes as he made his deliveries.
The symbol of the race ought to be a human being carrying an ax, for every human being has one concealed about him somewhere, and is always seeking the opportunity to grind it.
- Mark Twain, a Biography

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