A while back we had some interesting discussions here on animal
behaviors, how they have politics and exhibit some pretty human traits
sometimes.   The gist seemed to be that they can be quite a bit
brighter than we give them credit for, sometimes.   Jerry had cited Fu
Man Chu's escapes from the Omaha zoo, and there were some other
interesting anecdotes as well.

There used to be an elephant here at the Phoenix Zoo that would create
paintings, mostly just color abstract stuff, and the zoo would sell
the originals as well as prints.   Evidently that's not too rare and
there are elephants in a few zoos that have done that sort of thing
over the years, mostly making the sort of abstract stuff that you'd
expect an elephant to make.

So I was completely blown away when I saw this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=He7Ge7Sogrk

Evidently lessons make a difference!

There's an importer (that posted the vid) that has a website with very
nice floral paintings done by this elephant as well as a couple of
others.

Eric Jacobsen
Minister of Algorithms
Abineau Communications
http://www.ericjacobsen.org

Eric Jacobsen <eric.jacobsen@ieee.org> writes:
> [...]
> So I was completely blown away when I saw this:
>
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=He7Ge7Sogrk

Oh, come on - this is faked, right? This is too hard
to believe.
-- 
%  Randy Yates                  % "And all that I can do
%% Fuquay-Varina, NC            %  is say I'm sorry, 
%%% 919-577-9882                %  that's the way it goes..."
%%%% <yates@ieee.org>           % Getting To The Point', *Balance of Power*, ELO
http://www.digitalsignallabs.com

Eric Jacobsen wrote:
> A while back we had some interesting discussions here on animal
> behaviors, how they have politics and exhibit some pretty human traits
> sometimes.   The gist seemed to be that they can be quite a bit
> brighter than we give them credit for, sometimes.   Jerry had cited Fu
> Man Chu's escapes from the Omaha zoo, and there were some other
> interesting anecdotes as well.
> 
> There used to be an elephant here at the Phoenix Zoo that would create
> paintings, mostly just color abstract stuff, and the zoo would sell
> the originals as well as prints.   Evidently that's not too rare and
> there are elephants in a few zoos that have done that sort of thing
> over the years, mostly making the sort of abstract stuff that you'd
> expect an elephant to make.
> 
> So I was completely blown away when I saw this:
> 
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=He7Ge7Sogrk
> 
> Evidently lessons make a difference!
> 
> There's an importer (that posted the vid) that has a website with very
> nice floral paintings done by this elephant as well as a couple of
> others.
> 
> Eric Jacobsen
> Minister of Algorithms
> Abineau Communications
> http://www.ericjacobsen.org

I'm reminded of a circus elephant thought by trainers to be too stupid 
to learn verbal commands. After twenty years or so, they noticed her 
helping a janitor with his chores. It turned out that he spoke to her in 
Polish, which she understood well even after those long years of disuse.

It began when she pulled up the stake to which one of her legs had been 
shackled and approached him. Frightened, he shouted to her (in Polish) 
to get away from him, and she backed away, then pushed the stake back 
into the hole. Seeing that she understood him and was friendly, he began 
using her to help with heavy lifting. I can just imagine what she was 
thinking: "At last! Someone who doesn't talk gibberish!"

Jerry
-- 
Engineering is the art of making what you want from things you can get.
�����������������������������������������������������������������������

On Wed, 02 Apr 2008 13:44:25 -0400, Randy Yates <yates@ieee.org>
wrote:

>Eric Jacobsen <eric.jacobsen@ieee.org> writes:
>> [...]
>> So I was completely blown away when I saw this:
>>
>> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=He7Ge7Sogrk
>
>Oh, come on - this is faked, right? This is too hard
>to believe.

Here's another vid about the same elephant and the "art school" where
she lives:

http://www.noob.us/entertainment/an-elephant-that-can-paint-elephants/

Eric Jacobsen
Minister of Algorithms
Abineau Communications
http://www.ericjacobsen.org