Watch this. Seriously:
From what I hear, this is at a park in Thailand that provides brushes and easels to the elephants in order to help pay for their food and keep. Perhaps there is some aspect of animal training going on here, but no more so than in pre-schools for humans. Seriously, people, I’ve seen the crayon scrawls your three year olds bring home, proudly hung on the refrigerator. Representation, perspective, attitude (look at the head tilt), and ornamentation. All very clear.
I’ve always had a somewhat romantic view of elephants as gentle giants, long lived, and with long memories. They pass on knowledge from grandmother to granddaughter about the location of the reliable watering holes during severe draughts that may be decades apart. Looking in their eyes, I don’t see wisdom or cleverness as we understand those concepts … but there is certainly more there than the bovine stare of a giraffe … or the terrified prey mentality of an antelope.
The elephant drew an elephant, and finished it by showing that elephant holding high a brightly colored flower. It drew a relaxed and happy elephant, looking up at the colorful and transient beauty of nature.
What more evidence do you need?
I would like to sponsor a work of elephant art. I would pay the keepers in dollars, and I would plant a flower garden for the elephant to look at.
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