A good friend shared this with us and we'd like to share it with you. Thanks MK!
The video is of Steve Hartman reporting for CBS Assignment America from The Elephant Sanctuary in Hohenwald, TN (Jan. 2, 2009).
--Curmudgeon & Wing Nut
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16 comments:
I've heard of that place before. I think keeping large animals in zoos is barbaric. Elephants need space to roam! The treatment of the elephants at the Woodland Park zoo really upsets me. After the baby one died, I stopped going there, even though I have a kid. I think the "conservation" justification is mostly BS. Stronger laws to protect wild animals from abuse and endagerment the world over are so needed!!
I am almost overwhelmed with how profound their relationship is .. I have seen some intense and detailed nature shows about elephant relationships, how they are attached to each other .. but to see this odd couple was amazing .. and wonderful beyond words ..
Thank you so much for posting it : )
This is very moving. Thank you for posting it.
-Jean
What a lovely story! Thanks for sharing it.
Hi Karen! We live so close to WPZ and we still haven't been. We have very conflicted feelings about the whole zoo concept.
GardenJoy. the part that got to me the most was when they brought the pup outside after its illness and immediately the elephant started vocalizing.
Greetings Jean. I found myself getting a little teary-eyed.
You are most welcome garden girl.
This video reminds me of the sanctuary I visited in Malaysia in April last year when i visited that country. Thanks for posting this.
Greetings from London.
Joy expressed it so well. Such a heartwarming and touching friendship! Beautiful beyond word, indeed.
Animals are such amazing creatures and have some wonderful lessons to teach us.
Thanks so much for sharing this beautiful story.
Perhaps it's lingering hormones from pregnancy but I seriously cried over this. Thanks. I'm going to share it with my friends. Everyone could use a smile.
Goodness me. I'm completely choked up. Thanks for sharing this
Rob
Elephants are such magnificent creatures, Cuban. Thanks for stopping by all the way from London.
I agree Kerri! We humans can learn so much from animals. I'm glad it warmed your heart.
Greetings Gardeness. We shed more than a few tears too while watching it.
Welcome Rob! Thanks for stopping by and leaving a comment. Glad you enjoyed the clip.
A great story. Thanks.
To me one of the amazing things about elephants is thinking about how their social structure probably helped them survive in their environment. They are known to communicate sonically in very low frequencies over very long distances. They have amazing matrilineal herd structures. We, even people who specialize in elephants probably have hardly scratched the surface of what there is to know about and learn from elephants.
And I am not at all sure that zoos' attempts at conservation will really help preserve some traits that might only get real exercise in environments closer to where elephants evolved.
Of course preserving those environments is a much bigger political and practical problem than building elephant sanctuaries which I suppose are a good place to start.
As for Seattle's Woodland Park zoo, nephew and I were at the zoo one time watching the elephants. I cannot remember whether it was before or after Hamsa, the baby died. How you ask can someone miss anything as big as a baby elephant. Well, don't ask.
All the elephants wanted to do that day was stand out in the part of their enclosure as far from the public as possible with their rear ends turned toward the public. One of them was even pooping. I thought of Monty Python: "I poop in your general direction."
Hi RantWoman! I remember hearing at the time of Hansa's death that the Northwest Animal Rights Network was calling for WPZ and PDZ to end their elephant programs and send the elephants to the sanctuary in TN.
What a moving and also very uplifting story. Thanks Wenches, you've made my day! We can learn so much from the other animals around us, Tara and Bella set a great example of how deep friendship between different species can be. Absolutely wonderful!
BTW I feel very ambivalent about Zoos too, wish we could let all animals live where they are supposed to live and not keep them in cages or enclosures.
Glad you enjoyed the video YE. There's so much we humans don't know or understand about animals. So much we can learn if we'd only take a little time. Yes, very ambivalent feelings here too about zoos.
I saw this on tv not too long ago...I thought it was just amazing. Animals just 'get it', more than humans do, in many cases;)
This is an amazing story. I wouldn't have believed it if so had told it to me without the pictures. We have so much to learn from and about animals. Bonjour de France.
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