Before we can determine if elephants are intelligent we need to define the word intelligent! Any takers?


465H&H

Here's a start : Webster's online

Main Entry: in·tel·li·gence
Pronunciation: in-'te-l&-j&n(t)s
Function: noun
Etymology: Middle English, from Middle French, from Latin intelligentia, from intelligent-, intelligens intelligent
1 a (1) : the ability to learn or understand or to deal with new or trying situations.

What I had when I was 21, but discovered that I'd lost at 60.

quote:

What I had when I was 21, but discovered that I'd lost at 60.

Judge G

Hmmmm, does that mean you're huntable?

Ann,
You completely sucked me in on that one....

Great joke.

HMMMM. Shoot the humans. We've done that in greater numbers. Why do we have to manage elephants? Manage humans, the locusts of the planet...

GS

Humans are easy to manage, all we would have to do is tell the cajuns that humans are good to eat..I am prsently spreading that rumor about Iranians!

Pigs are reportedly the smartest animal around, so you guys quit eating bacon and ham...

All kidding aside I respect what Shakari is saying and will defend his right to say what he believes with my life if need be, even though I don't particularly agree with it...

quote:

Originally posted by Hunter Formerly Known As Texas Hunter:
Here's a start : Webster's online

Main Entry: in·tel·li·gence
Pronunciation: in-'te-l&-j&n(t)s
Function: noun
Etymology: Middle English, from Middle French, from Latin intelligentia, from intelligent-, intelligens intelligent
1 a (1) : the ability to learn or understand or to deal with new or trying situations.

Many people believe elephants have a sixth sense. In India elephants were said to have been seen trumpeting and running for higher ground just before the 2005 sunami hit. In his DVD "Hunting the African Elephant" Buzz seemingly comments that hunters are more often faced with a frontal shot due to the animal turning to face you after homing in on a perception other than the "normal" five senses.
Perhaps by touching the bones of their dead relatives they're attempting to communicate telepathically.

When I was kid I had this fantasy that I had discovered the secret to animal "instincts". It was my idea that if an event happened often enough in a animals life, such as getting sick after eating a particular plant or being shot by poachers with ball ammunition the "event" would become hard wired in the brain. To be more clear, the animals offspring would be borne with the memory of the events of it's ancestor in the same way that it's brain was born with the information that the heart needs to beat in order to pump blood. Over the years, a few holes were punched in my theory but I still like it anyway.

I'm just suggesting that maybe "elephant" intelligence is of a type that cannot be found in websters online dictionary.

quote:

Humans are easy to manage, all we would have to do is tell the cajuns that humans are good to eat..I am prsently spreading that rumor about Iranians!

Pigs are reportedly the smartest animal around, so you guys quit eating bacon and ham...

All kidding aside I respect what Shakari is saying and will defend his right to say what he believes with my life if need be, even though I don't particularly agree with it...

The above quote is perhaps is one of the best posts (sincerely) I have ever seen on AR!!!

quote:

Originally posted by 465H&H:
Appears that elephants are about as intellegient as the average 16 year old human male and just as unpredictable.



Posted 08 June 2007 21:28 Hide Post
Humans are easy to manage, all we would have to do is tell the cajuns that humans are good to eat..I am prsently spreading that rumor about Iranians!

Pigs are reportedly the smartest animal around, so you guys quit eating bacon and ham...

All kidding aside I respect what Shakari is saying and will defend his right to say what he believes with my life if need be, even though I don't particularly agree with it...


Ray Atkinson

465H&H

quote:

Humans are easy to manage, all we would have to do is tell the cajuns that humans are good to eat..I am prsently spreading that rumor about Iranians!

Pigs are reportedly the smartest animal around, so you guys quit eating bacon and ham...

All kidding aside I respect what Shakari is saying and will defend his right to say what he believes with my life if need be, even though I don't particularly agree with it...

Once again... Ray nails it!! Way to go Ray. I not only agree with you but am laughing my butt off...

My only thing I'd add, is that I wish that anti-hunting stuff like that would be in a separate ethics forum instead of causing so much unnecessary chatter that upsets the hunting forums and renders them war zones rather than places for hunters to discuss hunting.

$bob$

quote:

Pigs are reportedly the smartest animal around, so you guys quit eating bacon and ham...

Wait a minute. Has any of our elephant hunters actually eaten the elephant? Is the meat as popular as pork?

Last I checked, people don't kill elephants for meat, so your response is just another rationalization.

I ate some of my elephant, grilled back strap. It didn't taste like chicken or pork, more on the line of beef.

From what I understand there is never a shortage of hungry mouths to feed in Africa and the PH has to do little more than tell the locals where all that free protein can be had and they show up in droves and strip it clean in a few short hours.

Elephant is very popular with locals in Africa if what I've read lately is any indication.

$bob$

While bull elephant hunting in Zim last June we shot a cow that charged us in teh thick jess from 11 yards. Even though the tribe took the entire animal from this CAMPFIRE ares, I told the learner ph that was with is to score some of the meat for camp. A few nights later we were eating, what I thought was a very tender pot roast, when I asked the learner ph why he haden't gotten any of the elephant. He started to laugh and informed me that we were eating the filet from the cow, right then. I was surprised. It was very good.

quote:

Last I checked, people don't kill elephants for meat, so your response is just another rationalization.

skyjacker,

Nope... YOUR response is just more misinformed blather by a thinly disguised anti-hunter.

By the way... Your check BOUNCED!!!

$bob$

Skyjacker:

If you'd get off a few of those big bucks that you're making and go to Africa with me and Dale, you'd see that wasted meat is not an issue. Below are pictures of folks in Zimbabwe that seem to come out of ant holes or somewhere to cut up and eat an elephant shot in the middle of nowhere. A rifle shot, and 70 people in 30 minutes with the closest hut 10 miles away.... yes, sir... elephant are eaten and a greatly appreciated protein source by Africans.







And LDHunter:
Skyjacker isn't an anti-hunter, he, IMHO, just typed before thinking, a common trait of mine. In any event, he's taken lots bigger whitetails than this old fart.

JG,

Ok.. It sure appeared the he was an anti because anyone that reads on this forum or any books on Africa usually knows that meat is at a premium and rarely wasted in Africa.

I guess he's just guilty of ignorance of the African people's craving for meat and their willingness to drop everything and show up with the whole dang villiage to harvest meat off hunter's kills.

Guess I'm gettin' touchy and cranky in my old age huh?

$bob$

I like to have at least one meal of elephant on each hunt. IMHO elephant meat has a very pleasant taste but most cuts are as tough as a cross of shoe leather and a rubber hose. The cheeks (like walleye or halibut cheeks) is very tasty and reasonably tender. They are about the size of a large T-bone steak. Try some off of your next elephant.It goes well with sudsa.

465H&H

The Africans do seem to love elephant. And I have eaten it as well. I will probably eat some more this fall. But I have to say that I can't call it good. I am an old West Texas cowboy and am used to eating good beef though.

As far as meat goes in Africa, every last morsel is consumed and APPRECIATED by the Africans and some by the hunters. NONE IS WASTED!!! Not only that, IT IS NEEDED by the Africans.

I love to eat elephant. It is good in a stew, but noy really recognizable as elephant. It is at its best when it is cooked in 1" square strips over an open fire and eaten rare to medium rare, with salt, as a break during recovery. All of the crew will enjoy it. Goes well with a cold beer. Seems the cheek and the back of the neck are the best.

JPK

quote:

Originally posted by JudgeG:
Skyjacker:

If you'd get off a few of those big bucks that you're making and go to Africa with me and Dale, you'd see that wasted meat is not an issue.

I think y'all took me the wrong way. I'm not giving people a hard time for hunting elephants.
To each his own. Elephant just isn't for me. Kudu on the other hand I would like to try sometime.

My first statement was merely the dismissal of another hunter who stated that elephants don't possess a higher intelligence level. We don't know that.

My second comment came across wrong. I didn't mean to say that people don't eat elephant. I know the meat feeds many of starving villagers. That said, it isn't marketed nation wide for public consumption like pork is, so the comparison of an elehant to a pig is a little ridiculous to me.

Sorry if I offended you. And JudgeG, one of these days you and Dale can bust my African Cherry and I may sing a different tune. But it will have to be awhile as I'm slowly making my way across North America before crossing the sea to Africa.