This week’s Feedback column (that I write) in New Scientist magazine has three segments. Here are bits of each of them: Down, with turtles and elephants — The fabled dominance of the hare by the tortoise has an underground counterpart of sorts in a look at turtles and elephants in times gone by. The elephants came out […]
The Denver Medical Times [August 1899 vol. XIX, no. 2, pp. 65-71] was the venue for James Weir Jr.’s compendium of observations on how animals treat themselves when afflicted by diseases. Among the highlights: Several safari travelers report that elephants shot by hunters may plug their wounds with moistened clay. “In 1882 there was on […]
Do elephants discriminate between (and perhaps against) different human ethnic groups? This study addresses that question: “Elephants Classify Human Ethnic Groups by Odor and Garment Color,” Lucy A. Bates, Katito N. Sayialel, Norah W. Njiraini, Cynthia J. Moss, Joyce H. Poole, Richard W. Byrne, Current Biology, vol. 17, no. 22, November 20, 2007, pp. 1938–1942. […]
When all else fails, watch this video that documents Beethoven for elephants:
The Deccan Chronicle reports about the latest experiment by 2002 Ig Nobel mathematics prize winner K.P. Sreekumar: Forest dept to use bees to stop jumbos Honeybees may look humble but can drive away a marauding pack of wild elephants. This is no Aesop fable but a new strategy being mooted by the desperate forest department […]