For a minute, I thought I was reading about Blackie, the ghost elk. This thread is the funniest bunch of DUmmy tripe you'll ever read. These idiots assign intelligence, planning, concerns for hygiene, compassion, and the whole gamut of human emotion and behavior to a stupid elk. They will believe absolutely anything.
lonestarnot (1000+ posts) Sat Jun-25-11 12:32 AM
Original message
An elk saved a marmot from drowning.
http://www.kpho.com/story/14969043/elk-saves-animal-fro...
There's a pic over there.
..."For 15 minutes, Shooter circled the tank and was able to position his antlers and reach into the water, grabbing the marmot out, set him on the ground, and began nudging him with his hoof."
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x1359884snagglepuss (1000+ posts) Sat Jun-25-11 12:40 AM
Response to Original message
1. Zoo officials say the elk's behavior can be credited to his lifestyle at the zoo.
"The basic needs are being met, so you start to see a little bit more elaborate behavior," O'Connor said. "They're engaging their brains in different ways that would have been basically for survival in the wild, but now is a little more complicated and advanced."
Amazing they caught this on tape. Recently I've seen a spate of articles about one animal species saving another. Wierd.
If they were zoo officials, they were laughing as they said that.
roguevalley (1000+ posts) Sat Jun-25-11 04:04 AM
Response to Reply #9
15. a bunch of dolphins kept a guy's body afloat when he was killed
recently. they stayed with it and tried to help him. Animals are wonderful.
Maybe. If they were eating him.
alphafemale (1000+ posts) Sat Jun-25-11 05:14 AM
Response to Reply #3
17. It sounds as if someone is applying Human Psychology 101 to animals.
As in Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. I always thought that was pretty much bullshit and elitist to the extreme. It is basically saying that someone who doesn't know where their next meal is coming from is not capable of altruism or higher thought.
yardwork (1000+ posts) Sat Jun-25-11 11:08 AM
Response to Reply #3
21. I agree with you. In fact, I thought that the zoo keepers comments were hilarious.
Right. An animal could not possibly have come up with the idea of saving another animal's life unless that animal had lived in a zoo.
Animals come up with the funniest ideas sometimes!
Flubadubya (1000+ posts) Sat Jun-25-11 11:41 AM
Response to Reply #21
27. Hippo saves gazelle in wildest Africa...
Yep, zoo life is not the reason.
Many years ago I remember seeing a National Geographic special on TV that showed a hippopotamus in a river in Africa saving a young gazelle from drowning. Somehow the gazelle ended up in his river and was in distress. The hippo came along and gently nudged the creature out of the water and onto the bank. It then stood for several minutes by it nudging it.
I was quite impressed with this because I thought it clearly demonstrated that animals are capable of real compassion also. That I do believe.
Flubadum confused National Geographic with The Lion King.
Know-it-all nadin, busily writing short stories on her iPod, jumps on the anthorpomorphic bandwagon:
nadinbrzezinski (1000+ posts) Sat Jun-25-11 01:17 AM
Response to Reply #4
7. Some of the things we have seen the conures do
like Cookie using the push to talk button and regaling perfect strangers with his screeches over the computer... people can tell me we are more intelligent all they want... no we are not.
DartingDog (1 posts) Sat Jun-25-11 02:10 AM
Response to Original message
12. Idaho elk rescues cute marmot with antlers
I saw a large buck use his antlers to hook and dump a bird feeder for a very young deer who was unable to reach the seed tray. He watched her for several minutes and then moved forward, she was afraid of him and ran and hid behind her mother, he dumped the bird seed, and then moved away so she could eat. Tiny baby deer aren't much bigger than marmots and the same color, so maybe the cute baby face appealed to him.
Deer are among the dumbest animals in creation. The idea that a grown deer would help a fawn feed is ludicrous.
DUmmy surrealAmerican is sure the elk was concerned with having a hygienic source of drinking water. DUmmy surrealAmerican hasn't seen animals shit in their waterhole.
surrealAmerican (1000+ posts) Sat Jun-25-11 08:00 AM
Response to Reply #12
18. Interesting idea.
I had figured it might have more to do with keeping the water from being fouled, but you may be right.
