Science is about skepticism. Being an anti-believer who knee jerk pisses on the idea that this could possibly be true is no more scientific than the people who accept assertions uncritically.<p>It matters relatively little whether it was actually poachers or some other human. We can be fairly certain it was actually humans that injured the animals. I also think it is not hugely important whether the animals went there intentionally seeking medical care or happened to end up in the right place. I think the most important detail of this story is that the elephants apparently <i>cooperated</i> with the humans that treated them, after being injured by other humans. I think that is huge and really hopeful.
Great story. In the "Animal Minds" episode, Radiolab recounts a story of divers saving a net-entangled whale, and the whale in turn "thanks" each diver. It's a good show, and the examples included are thought-provoking. If you found this story intriguing, I recommend giving this Radiolab episode a listen. If not, the stories leads to what is intelligence and connection possibilities across species, and the topic of Spindle Neurons is presented which are explored as a connection between high and low order parts of the brain. (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spindle_neuron" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spindle_neuron</a>)<p>_<p>The Goods:<p>1. The episode: <a href="http://www.radiolab.org/story/91701-animal-minds/" rel="nofollow">http://www.radiolab.org/story/91701-animal-minds/</a><p>2. A related follow-up about whales: <a href="http://www.radiolab.org/story/149761-whale-saying-thank-you/" rel="nofollow">http://www.radiolab.org/story/149761-whale-saying-thank-you/</a>
That's a beautiful story if it is indeed the case. It seems absolutely conceivable to me that an intelligent species could mark places as safe havens.<p>Poachers are really shitty.
The original report (<a href="https://www.sheldrickwildlifetrust.org/updates/updates.asp?Rhino=&ID=849" rel="nofollow">https://www.sheldrickwildlifetrust.org/updates/updates.asp?R...</a>) which someone else linked is much more interesting.<p>While it definitely claims that the Elephants come to DSWT for help, it stops short of claiming that the arrows came from poachers.<p>Indeed, I have to wonder what the survival rate is for Elephants that come into contact with poachers? The report suggests that ~10 Elephants were treated with Arrow wounds. This seems quite disconnected from the intent of poachers (kill them), and more in line with the intent of farmers (drive them away).<p>I'm not saying it wasn't poachers (I don't know the subject well enough to claim anything like that). It just seems odd to me for a poacher to do that.
Digging in to this by searching for other related stories, in brief, my findings:<p>1. So far, no direct corroboration. Not even on the DSWT website.
2. Poachers do appear to use poison arrows/darts.
3. DSWT appears to be the real deal, i.e. not a phony wildlife sanctuary.<p>I buy it that the elephants would go there. I'd like to see a better write up. Agreed that the article, as such, is a bit weak.
Furthermore if you live in Washington state, please support Initiative 1401 (<a href="http://saveanimalsfacingextinction.org" rel="nofollow">http://saveanimalsfacingextinction.org</a>) on the November ballot. This initiative would help with reducing the amount of illegal ivory coming to the US. Washington state is a strategic state because a lot of illegal ivory comes to the US from China and Washington has large ports so restricting it in Washington state will go pretty far. California has already passed a similar law.<p>We are also looking for volunteers who would help out with the campaign outreach efforts. If you are in Washington state and have 2 hours of free time every now and then and want to help out, email me at adamnemecek at gmail.com.<p>Furthermore, over at /r/babyelephantgifs, we've been running a fundraiser to help some conservation organizations, you can read more about it here <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/babyelephantgifs/comments/3gppt7/hey_baby_elephant_fans_today_is_world_elephant/" rel="nofollow">https://www.reddit.com/r/babyelephantgifs/comments/3gppt7/he...</a><p>You should for example consider donating to the International Anti-Poaching Foundation[0][1] which fights the poachers. The
founder, Damien Mander[2], is an Australian ex spec-ops sniper who is using his military experience to train the park rangers since they, unlike the poachers, tend to be poorly equipped and trained as well as understaffed.<p>There is also the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust[3][4] which takes care of elephant and rhino orphans (most of whom are orphans due to poaching). For $50 a year, you can become a sponsor of a particular animal and they'll send you photos and updates about how your sponsored animal is doing. You can for example sponsor this little fella [5]who was rescued a while back. This sponsorship is a pretty great gift.<p>[0] <a href="http://www.iapf.org/en/" rel="nofollow">http://www.iapf.org/en/</a><p>[1] <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Anti-Poaching_Foundation" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Anti-Poaching_Fo...</a><p>[2] <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Damien_Mander" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Damien_Mander</a><p>[3] <a href="http://www.sheldrickwildlifetrust.org" rel="nofollow">http://www.sheldrickwildlifetrust.org</a><p>[4] <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Sheldrick_Wildlife_Trust" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Sheldrick_Wildlife_Trust</a><p>[5] <a href="https://instagram.com/p/4uSGkzgUK7/?taken-by=dswt" rel="nofollow">https://instagram.com/p/4uSGkzgUK7/?taken-by=dswt</a>
The more we learn about other animals the less superior we should feel, it's now perfectly clear that there is nothing divine about human beings, and there is no magical spark that makes us better than other animals.