Elephant Paints Another Elephant

[Narz]

Thoguht this was kinda cool. I didn't know any other animals besides humans & monkies could paint intelligbly.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2246645/Pictures-of-the-day-4-July-2008.html

Bull elephant Noppakhao paints a picture of another elephant in Ayutthaya province, Thailand

 

[AngryZealot]

Here's a video. I'm amazed such a large animal can handle a paintbrush with such precision. Then again, the trunk is intended for those kinds of motions.

 

[holiday_hawk]

Wow thats amazing, i never would have thought it possible.

 

[Perfection]

What I've always wanted to know about this is have they ever documented a case where a nonhuman has painted something that is unmistakably a representation of something and not due to training to represent such image.

It's one thing for an elephant to copy an image, but another to create one.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

Wow... I realize it was due to painstaking training, but that is a beautiful painting the elephant in the video did.

 

[Birdjaguar]

Pretty awesome. Thanks.

 

[warpus]

Does the elephant know it's painting the picture of an elephant?

That is the question...

 

[holiday_hawk]

You know, if Hannibal had elephants like these he could have won the second Punic War.

 

[Birdjaguar]

Does the elephant know it's painting the picture of an elephant?

That is the question...

Or do they ever change the painting? None the less. It is very cool.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

Each specific painting is like a routine the elephant learns, much like the elephants learn in circuses -- but I would expect that art lessons are much less stressful for the elephant, and have a much more positive result.

So I'm guessing a specific elephant could learn to do more than one specific painting. And in the video, I noticed a human walking by with another elephant painting -- one that was of flowers, and no animals at all. So there must be at least one elephant there that has been taught to paint a picture of flowers.

It's all still really cool, though.

 

[Berzerker]

It's one thing for an elephant to copy an image, but another to create one.

it is copying an image, the image of other elephants. People copy images of people and we call it art. And many people need lessons for that, so what if the elephant was given some training with a brush?

its amazing

we know someone who has taught horses to paint, but its just brush strokes without any goal.

 

[aelf]

Is Functionalism on the loose here?

 

[Tee Kay]

You know, if Hannibal had elephants like these he could have won the second Punic War.

He could've made some money out of it too. That's what I call war profiteering.

I have actually seen some elephant-artist in Thailand, but their drawings aren't as good as this. Mostly it's just lines and smears of paint, but it's nice in its own way, I guess.

 

[Mise]

Does the elephant know it's painting the picture of an elephant?

That is the question...

Elephants recognise themselves in mirrors (or rather, the recognise the image they see in the mirror as themselves, as opposed to another elephant), so it wouldn't surprise me if it knew that.

 

[plarq]

Is Functionalism on the loose here?

Note: you haven't beaten Functionalism yet.

 

[Dawkins]

go elephants!

 

[Ammar]

You know, if Hannibal had elephants like these he could have won the second Punic War.

Unlikely. They would have escaped instead of letting the Carthagians use them in their war. I doubt the elephants were carthaginian patriots.

 

[Perfection]

it is copying an image, the image of other elephants. People copy images of people and we call it art. And many people need lessons for that, so what if the elephant was given some training with a brush?

By "copying an image" I do not mean turning a photograph or live viewing into a painting which does require a large deal of creativity I presume, rather I mean an image in the human mind carefully instilled into the elephant through training.

Can an elephant view a scene in real life, and replicate it in painting without a person instructing it?

 

[aelf]

Note: you haven't beaten Functionalism yet.

No, but the Chinese Room has, to a significant extent.

 

[Bigfoot3814]

I once saw an elephant band on TV.