I just can't get over this elephant painting a picture of himself

I read online that the elephant has been trained to do that.  Check this out:
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QZxSPSWxwjI
 
I love 'em!
 
 
 
 

And there seems to be a whole row of painters in the background!
I couldn't spot the slightest sign of this being manipulated, so I guess I have to believe it's true.
Unbelievable, IMO. Many (most?) people couldn't draw an elephant as well.

Can't help wondering how many hours or days or weeks it took to get them to do that, and what kind of mental and physical stress the animal was put under. Maybe none, maybe far too much.. Seen some nasty stuff reported about elephant 'training' in India.

I trained a herd of elephants once.  It was very messy.  I admit that I went through a few elephants before I finally managed to fit the steam engine inside one of them.  Some of the others objected to installation of the axles at first.  I went to a great deal of effort to hollow out one to make a dining car only to find that no one really wanted to eat inside it.
 
All in all, the result was rather disappointing.  I probably wouldn't choose to do it again.

James1213
 
Can't help wondering how many hours or days or weeks it took to get them to do that, and what kind of mental and physical stress the animal was put under. Maybe none, maybe far too much.. Seen some nasty stuff reported about elephant 'training' in India.

 
Seems you're on the right track mate: Elephant Rescue and Asia Survival Foundation
 
Here's the blurb for anyone who can't access the link from work:
 

I'm aware of cruel methods used in animal training of all kind. That is totally unacceptable, no matter how "dumb" or "clever" the species. I do wonder, though, why couldn't something like painting, or whatever, be tought to them with acceptable methods. 
 
Elephants are intelligent animals. Why wouldn't they enjoy "brain training" the same way dogs, dolphins and apes do? I can't see anything wrong in guiding the painting by squeezing the ear. I'm not saying the info in the link above is false in anyway, but I don't allow myself to jump to  conclusions too fast. And phrases like " It's a myth that elephants are talented, because they can paint" or "circus tricks are degrading and cause mental trauma" are so naive that they throw a shadow on the credibility of the whole site.
 
There was nothing in the slide show about painting that worried me, but the life of, say, the trekking elephants, isn't nice to watch. It's like the life of working horses in western world 100+odds years ago. Another question, then, is how many "failing" painters, that never get to perform, are treated with heavy hands during the process.
 
Also, wouldn't a stressed, mistreated elephant be a very risky animal walking around among tourists in groups (like in the video, you see many unchained ones). "Tame" elephants do attack at people all the time. An animal doing something that it doesn't do in the wild does not automatically mean the animal is suffering or mistreated.
(Wild elephants do make marks in the sand with their trunks, AFAIK)

We come in when we feel it or when there's becan involved.

Moshkiae
but I doubt that we didn't learn about sex from them!
 

I just don't know if I can put up much longer with all this talk about sex.

 

Moshkiae
 
There are smart animals out there. And sometimes we think that we didn't learn from many of them in the first place! We might have learned "love" by ourselves (hahaha!!!), but I doubt that we didn't learn about sex from them!
 

 
I think you might be anthropomorphizing a little.
 
Calling some of the things that animals do 'smart', or more accurately what humans consider 'smart', can really allude to actions that are maybe just 'cute'.
 
In reality, what we might consider 'smart' things that animals do are those actions that prevent them getting eaten.
 
 

SteveStrummerUK
 

Moshkiae
 
There are smart animals out there. And sometimes we think that we didn't learn from many of them in the first place! We might have learned "love" by ourselves (hahaha!!!), but I doubt that we didn't learn about sex from them!
 

 
I think you might be anthropomorphizing a little.
 
Calling some of the things that animals do 'smart', or more accurately what humans consider 'smart', can really allude to actions that are maybe just 'cute'.
 
In reality, what we might consider 'smart' things that animals do are those actions that prevent them getting eaten.

Nahhh ... I just think that we consider ourselves so damn superior sometimes, but we make guns and bombs to go kill people! No difference!