No Way!!!

Uh...this can't be real, can it? A few more long shots would certainly make it more convincing, but still....What do you think?

I can't get my dog Atomic to remember where the doggie door is yet someone was able to teach this elephant to paint like this?

Comments

[Geo]

So.......let me guess. This talented pachyderm
works for peanuts!

[Raul]

Hmm...

It is hard to say if it is the elephant or not. Clearly you can see the entire elephant painting the flowers in the last few frames, but there are too many shadows to draw a definite conclusion.

It is pretty cool though!

[Stacey]

I'd be the first one to say that most animals are smarter than we give them credit for, but still....I don't buy it. Couldn't say how they did it, but they can make just about anything look real.

[JennySmith]

When I went to Thailand I went to an elephant camp where I saw them paint (and play soccer!). The paintings were cool (on the abstract scale of things), but looked nothing like this painting.

One thing's for certain: I would not want to play pictionary with that elephant. Six minutes to draw an elephant? I could have had that in 30 seconds, tops.

[maltese parakeet]

i think it's fairly reasonable to assume you could teach an elephant to do the rote motions to make that drawing, but what i'm really interested in is whether the elephant understands that drawing as a representation of itself. it would demonstrate a level of self awareness that i think we normally only attribute to humans. it raises a lot of questions about what's going on in the minds of our animal friends, doesn't it?

[K]

Fascinating... Kindergarteners can't even draw that well!

[Frances]

I can't say if this is real or not, but if it is real, shame on the handlers who made him do that!

And shame on those tacky onlookers wanting to buy the painting and supporting this sort of animal abuse.

[Patrcia]

I saw a comment about this video on another website. It claimed that these elephants were trained with abusive methods to learn how to paint. There is supposed to be a documentary on animal planet about this. Does anyone know if this is true?

[Nicole]

If snopes says it's true, that's good enough for me. http://www.snopes.com/photos/animals/elephantpainting.asp

[Frank Murphy]

Now we know who did all those ancient cave drawings of the wooly mammoths.

Hey Bean, your farm NEEDS an elephant! Seriously.

FM

[Rochelle]

Why do people assume the elephants are trained abusively? I'd be interested to see a video on how they're taught to paint.

[dana]

i think 60 Minutes did a piece on this. memory is fuzzy but i think they determined the place they visited was humane and the money raised supported the sanctuary...