the elephant uprising

the new york times alerts us to an alarming phemonenon, rising elephant terrorism.

perhaps the social fabric of elephant lives is fraying because of moral relativism and abortion like this guy said. maybe they're just sick of you naked apes. i know i am!

i wonder, pooches, do we join the pachyderms in their quest to end naked ape domination? perhaps we should merely co-opt them for our purposes. they're really good at sitting on things, i hear. and it sounds like they could use our help:

Decades of poaching and culling and habitat loss, they claim, have so disrupted the intricate web of familial and societal relations by which young elephants have traditionally been raised in the wild, and by which established elephant herds are governed, that what we are now witnessing is nothing less than a precipitous collapse of elephant culture.

It has long been apparent that every large, land-based animal on this planet is ultimately fighting a losing battle with humankind. And yet entirely befitting of an animal with such a highly developed sensibility, a deep-rooted sense of family and, yes, such a good long-term memory, the elephant is not going out quietly. It is not leaving without making some kind of statement, one to which scientists from a variety of disciplines, including human psychology, are now beginning to pay close attention.