This week we touch on the nuanced and often problematic relationship between elephants
and humans, and at the end propose a couple of ideas for how to save these fascinating
creatures before they’re lost forever. Throughout history humans have used other
animals for reasons ranging from transportation to the carrying of heavy loads. Of course,
when the animals are no longer useful, they can always be eaten.
Another feature of human civilization is the development of legal systems.�
Those who violated the law could sometimes be faced with death as punishment.
Some cultures found that elephants were a great way to kill criminals.��
Today, we are going to look more closely at the history of elephants and the ways in which they
have killed people. Are They Smart?
Elephants are one of the few animals that demonstrate a level of self-awareness which
may be comparable to what humans experience.
There isn’t a reliable way to determine how self-aware an animal might be. But in 1970,
psychologist Gordon Gallup Jr. designed a test that tried to determine if an animal at least had
the ability to visually recognize itself. This became known as the mirror test. �
The animal being tested is usually tranquilized.� Then a mark is placed on a part of the body
that it usually cannot see. When the animal awakes, it is given access to a
mirror. If it notices the mark and tries to investigate, then it has “passed” the test.
An animal that can look in a mirror and recognize that it is seeing itself is
assumed to be self-aware. Among the animals that have passed this test are great apes, dolphins,
orcas, a magpie, one species of fish, and a single Asian elephant.
In addition to being self-aware, elephants also construct and use
tools. In the wild, some elephants remove tree branches and use them as fly swatters.�
They also modify the branches to increase their effectiveness.
Elephants have also demonstrated significant problem-solving abilities. One male that
lived in captivity moved a giant rock to help him get to food that was out
of reach. It is also not uncommon for them to take rocks and drop them on electric fences.
Furthermore, these giant animals seem to have extremely good long-term memory. �
In the wild, elephants cover large distances and may not return to a location for years. They
appear to maintain mental maps of the terrain with great accuracy. Memory tests of elephants
in captivity have also shown they can recall information years after learning it.
It is impossible to know if these large land mammals experience a level
of self-awareness that matches the human experience. But elephants are clearly
intelligent and aware of their existence. They are also quite adept at killing people.
When Elephants Attack It might be surprising to
learn that elephants attack and kill people all the time. Some of them don’t have to be taught
to end human life, it just comes naturally. And in some cases, it might be justified.
In Uganda in 2006, elephant numbers were extremely low and food availability was
high. Normally this would mean the creatures wouldn’t be aggressive towards people.
However, they began purposely blocking roads and trampling through
villages. There was no clear motivation. Scientists think events in the 1970s are to
blame. The elephant herd was culled during that decade. The people killing the animals
weren’t careful about it and killed older females as part of the effort.�
Since elephants are a matriarchal society, this meant that a lot of knowledge was lost.
The young females that survived became the equivalent of teenage mothers. �
Scientists think an entire generation of elephants developed post-traumatic stress disorder,
and their children were raised poorly. So now there is an entire generation
of misbehaving angry elephants to deal with.
Even when people aren’t killing elephants the land mammals can become aggressive.�
In India, they frequently enter villages at night. They destroy homes and kill people in
the process. Between 2000 and 2006 at least 539 people have died in elephant attacks.��
In 2002 a group of drunk elephants attacked a village in India and killed six people. �
The locals became enraged and killed 200 Elephants in response.�
Despite having a troubled relationship with humanity,
these angry beasts can be domesticated. In some cases, they have been used
as a labor-saving tool. In antiquity, elephants were also a weapon of war.
The earliest written reference to War Elephants is from the Indian epic Mahabharata, which was
written in the 4th century BCE. Some sources claim they were being used 700 years before that.
Elephants that served in the military usually had armor to protect their sides. Tusks were fitted
with sharp points of iron or brass. Most War Elephants were trained to grab an enemy soldier,
pin him to the ground, and impale him. The civilizations that trained Elephants
also realized they were quite capable of killing criminals too.��
Elephant as Executioner Most of the countries that
used Elephants to execute criminals were in Southeast Asia. The written accounts which exist
are mostly from Europeans who traveled through the area then wrote about it after the fact.
A Scottish sea captain and merchant named Alexander Hamilton left a written account of his
visit to Siam. Sometime around 1725 he said, “For Treason and Murder, the Elephant is the
Executioner. The condemned Person is made fast to a Stake driven into the Ground for the Purpose,
and the Elephant is brought to view him, and goes twice or thrice round him, and when the Elephant's
Keeper speaks to the monstrous Executioner, he twines his Trunk round the Person and Stake,
and pulling the Stake from the Ground with great Violence,
tosses the Man and the Stake into the Air, and in coming down, receives him on his Teeth,
and making him off again, puts one of his fore Feet on the Carcase, and squeezes it flat.”
In 1850, British Diplomat Henry Charles Sirr
visited Sri Lanka. The British annexed the area in 1815 and outlawed executions using
Elephants. But the Elephant that performed the executions prior to 1815 was still
alive. Henry was taken to view the animal and left us with the following account:
“During the native dynasty it was the practice to train elephants to put criminals to death
by trampling upon them, the creatures being taught to prolong the agony of the wretched
sufferers by crushing the limbs, avoiding the vital parts. With the last tyrant king of Candy,
this was a favourite mode of execution and as one of the elephant executioners was
at the former capital during our sojourn there, we were particularly anxious to test the creature's
sagacity and memory. The animal was mottled and of enormous size and was quietly standing there
with his keeper seated upon his neck; the noble who accompanied us desired the man to dismount
and stand on one side. The chief then gave the word of command, ordering the creature to
'slay the wretch!' The elephant raised his trunk, and twined it, as if around a human being;
the creature then made motions as if he were depositing the man on the earth before him,
then slowly raised his back-foot, placing it alternately upon the spots where the limbs of the
sufferer would have been. This he continued to do for some minutes; then, as if satisfied that the
bones must be crushed, the elephant raised his trunk high upon his head and stood motionless;
the chief then ordered him to 'complete his work,' and the creature immediately placed one foot,
as if upon the man's abdomen, and the other upon his head,
apparently using his entire strength to crush and terminate the wretch's misery.”
Some Muslim travelers visited southeast Asia centuries before Europeans. They were able to
see executions happen instead of hearing about it years after the fact. Ibn Battuta visited Delhi,
India in the 1330s and said that: “Upon a certain day, when I myself was present,
some men were brought out who had been accused of having attempted the life
of the Vizier. They were ordered, accordingly, to be thrown to the elephants, which had been
taught to cut their victims to pieces. Their hoofs were cased with sharp iron instruments,
and the extremities of these were like knives. On such occasions the elephant-driver rode upon them:
and, when a man was thrown to them, they would wrap the trunk about him and toss him up,
then take him with the teeth and throw him between their fore feet upon the breast,
and do just as the driver should bid them,
and according to the orders of the Emperor. If the order was to cut him to pieces,
the elephant would do so with his irons, and then throw the pieces among the assembled multitude:
but if the order was to leave him, he would be left lying before the Emperor,
until the skin should be taken off, and stuffed with hay, and the flesh given to the dogs.”
One reason rulers in this part of the world loved using Elephants to kill
was because of how intelligent the animals are. � Elephants could be taught to kill a person in the
most efficient manner. But they were also capable of torturing a person and prolonging agony.
Robert Kerr, a Scottish surgeon in the early 19th century, wrote that the King of Goa
"keeps certain elephants for the execution of malefactors. When one of these is brought
forth to dispatch a criminal, if his keeper desires that the offender be destroyed speedily,
this vast creature will instantly crush him to atoms under his foot; but if desired to torture
him, will break his limbs successively, as men are broken on the wheel."
A firsthand account of this gruesome practice appeared in The Percy Anecdotes.�
It recorded a specific instance in 1814. “The man was a slave, and two days before
had murdered his master, brother to a native chieftain, called Ameer Sahib.
About eleven o'clock the elephant was brought out, with only the driver on his back, surrounded by
natives with bamboos in their hands. The criminal was placed three yards behind on the ground, his
legs tied by three ropes, which were fastened to a ring on the right hind leg of the animal.
At every step, the elephant took, it jerked him forward, and every eight or ten steps
must have dislocated another limb, for they were loose and broken when the elephant had
proceeded five hundred yards. The man, though covered in mud, showed every sign of life,
and seemed to be in the most excruciating torments. After having been tortured in this
manner for about an hour, he was taken to the outside of the town, when the elephant,
which is instructed for such purposes, was backed, and put his foot on the head of the criminal.”
A well-trained elephant was not only willing and able to kill on demand.�
It could also tailor its approach. Whether the experience was fast and relatively painless, or
long and excruciating, depended entirely on the Elephant and its trainers.
Endangered Although they can and do kill people, the main
danger to Elephants today comes from people. For instance, in 1979 Africa had a population
of nearly 1.3 million elephants.� Today that number is only 440,000. �
Asian elephants only number between 40,000 and 50,000 and are mostly found in India.
The most immediate danger to elephants is from poachers. They illegally hunt and
kill the creatures then sell the ivory, hide, and meat. In some parts of Africa
poachers succeed in killing 55 elephants per day. The average length of an elephant
pregnancy is nearly two years. The animals will go extinct if this trend continues.
Another problem is fragmented habitat. Elephants need a large area to roam and they need incredible
amounts of food. Much of their wild habitat is now occupied by farms that produce food for
humans. Wild elephants simply cannot live near people without causing damage. Because of this,
the animals destroy crops and property when wandering into agricultural areas.
Unless something changes soon, within the next several years there may no longer be
elephants living in the wild. They could become functionality extinct
in less than a single human lifetime. The Bad Things in History team usually doesn’t
take a public position on issues. We want to tell you about the bad parts of history,
but it’s not our job to tell you what to think. However, we do like elephants. And we don’t want
to see them go extinct. So, we’ve been kicking around a few proposals for how to save them.
Option 1: Let’s welcome elephants back into the role of executioner. For a trial program,
we suggest letting them punish poachers. � Even if it doesn’t work out in the long run,
at least these giant animals will get some payback.
Option 2: Carve out massive reserves on every continent. No hunting, villages,
corporate plundering, no human activity. Strictly and vigorously enforced.
If you don’t like our ideas, that is not a problem for us. But we want to hear how you
plan to save elephants from extinction. Let us know in the comments below.
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