Elephants intuiting a human friend's death !

[ajay00]

I recently came across an interesting story of a South African conservationist named Lawrence Anthony. He was known for his work amongst elephants.

It is said that just after Lawrence's death in his house, a group of elephants marched their way to his house for 12 hours, and hung around for two days before making their way to the bush.

https://protectallwildlifeblog.com/2...ant-whisperer/

” For two days the herds loitered at Anthony’s rural compound on the vast Thula Thula game reserve in the South African KwaZulu — to say good-bye to the man they loved. But how did they know he had died?

Imho, I think , considering this case study, animals are somehow capable of intuiting the state of close friends and responding accordingly.

[AngelBlue]

Oh Goodness and YES elephants are such emotional creatures. They feel and they grieve just like humans to the point that I honestly cannot watch and see them grieve for the loss of a calf.

They are wonderful beautiful gentle creatures.

[Native spirit]

If you watch them in the bush they will walk miles to say good bye to a fallen one they touch the bones in sympathy,


Namaste

[AngelBlue]

À..sorry tried to edit a post and gone wrong.
Will type out the post again.

[AngelBlue]

..........A mother's love ....

A little baby elephant
Lay lifeless in the dust .
His mother tried so hard in vain
To lift him with her tusks.
She tried so very very hard ,
As down the hot sun beat .
She tried in desperation ,
To lift him to his feet.

The herd stood in a circle , in solemn , silent grief,
In tribute to this little calf
Who's life had been so brief.
It tore me up completely ,
To see his mother's pain...
She finally understood that he
Would not get up again.

She stroked him for a long long time ,
Caressed him with her trunk .
And then in long slow deep deep breaths ,
His baby scent was drunk.

The herd encouraged her to move in quiet saddened call,
And though she tried and tried she found
She couldn't leave her son ,
At all .

She tried and tried to walk away ,
But turned each time on weary limb
To have just one last look at him.

With sorrow etched upon her face
She finally left his resting place.

No words were needed to explain ,
But if she could have spoken.
She would have told us just how much
Her gentle heart was broken.......

[Native spirit]

I actually saw this on a nature programme The mother elephant trying to lift her baby who had died it was very moving


Namaste

[AngelBlue]

Originally Posted by Native spirit

I actually saw this on a nature programme The mother elephant trying to lift her baby who had died it was very moving


Namaste

Thank you for editing the error !!

Yes, I saw that programme too which is what moved me to write the poem.
( It is somewhere in poetry if anyone feels they've heard it before)
Sometimes I have to turn over because I find some of the programmes too emotional to watch.

[ajay00]

Going through some of Anthony's sayings from his books, I found some which were in sync with the above incident...

https://www.goodreads.com/author/quo...Anthony?page=1

“The wrong way to go about this is to say: Well, researchers have ‘proved’ that animals only understand fifty words or something similarly absurd. Or that communication with other species is an illusion. Communication is not the preserve of humans; it is the one thing that is truly universal.” ~ Lawrence Antony

[AngelBlue]

An Absolutely amazing man in my opinion. The homage paid to him from the Elephants was the most fitting tribute that anyone could receive given all the work he did.
I so admire any person that devoted their life to this kind of work . ( My first inspiration in this field was Joy Adamson and her husband George )...