Relentless Inquiry

This NY Times article on elephant cultural breakdown has left me completely jaw-dropped.

Basic summary: a combination of habitat encroachment, poaching, *and* ecological conservation efforts that 'cull' (kill) older animals and relocate animals seems to be causing widespread elephant to human violence across parts of Africa. The system of cultural breakdown that researchers are documenting appears to parallel that of urban ghetto families– loss of elders, family units destabilizing, lack of strong male parental figures, and unprecedented violence and competition among younger males– including forcible rape and killing of rhinos in the preserves (!!) Researchers have done MRI of elephant brains and found that they're seeing what looks like classic PTSD– in fact, using PTSD-style therapy on the elephants seems to work.

Article also talks about a unique elephant sanctuary that uses elephant psych to provide a human/elephant family bond to raise orphan elephants yet not bond them so closely that they pine when released into the wild. Over the years they've successfully reared and reintroduced 60+ elephants– and some of the early 'graduates' are making a trek to bring their own young back to the sanctuary. Apparently the program has inadvertantly created human 'allomothers', essentially senior 'aunty' roles. Wow.

In what has to be one of the most amazing aspects of this whole article, they mention some elephant burial customs, including the equivalent of sitting shiva (group mourning and vigils lasting a week to 10 days), frequent grave visits where the bones are greeted with the same kind of jaw-touch as living herd members are greeted, and an elephant herd which killed a villager burying the villager and keeping vigil over the person– which apparently is not a unique event.

*We are not the only sentients on this planet, dammit!* I can only hope that people realize that before we drive the rest of them extinct.