An Elephant That Never Forgets...To KILL

My fellow SGers, it has come to my attention that there is a new threat to our freedom, a new villain that has entered the world stage. I am talking of course, about elephants. We must instigate a new War on Elephants before they strike again, leaving only mangled bodies and peanut husks in their wake.

Elephants appear to be attacking human settlements as vengeance for years of abuse, the New Scientist reported.

In Uganda, for example, elephant numbers have never been lower or food more plentiful, yet there are reports of the creatures blocking roads and trampling through villages, apparently without cause or motivation.

Scientists suspect that poaching during the 1970s and 1980s marked many of the animals with the effects of stress, perhaps caused by being orphaned or witnessing the death of family members.

Many herds lost their matriarch and had to make do with inexperienced "teenage mothers". Combined with a lack of older bulls, this appears to have created a generation of "teenage delinquent" elephants.

Dr Joyce Poole, the research director at the Amboseli Elephant Research Project in Kenya, said: "They are certainly intelligent enough and have good enough memories to take revenge.

"Wildlife managers may feel that it is easier to just shoot so-called 'problem' elephants than face people's wrath.

"So an elephant is shot without (people) realising the possible consequences on the remaining family members and the very real possibility of stimulating a cycle of violence."

Dr Poole's study showed that a lack of older bulls to lead by example has created gangs of hyper-aggressive young males.
I wonder if revenge can be called a natural instinct now? The fact that elephants are capable of exacting revenge on people is quite incredible, just so long as word doesn't reach the cats and dogs.

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