Man-Eating Elephant In India!?!?!

After a rogue elephant killed 17 people in India, locals knew it had to be stopped. Once the animal was killed, DNA tests on the contents of its stomach revealed something even more terrifying: the elephant had consumed human flesh.

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Wow I may be over reacting but... I can't find evidence of this happening in the past or at least I haven't found recorded evidence of elephants eating people maybe I'm reading in to all of this but I guess if you threaten their natural habitat and natural life cycles for generations they may not have access to dietary staples and may need to eat meat for nutritional value... But eating people is IMHO bizarre to say the least.

..Or maybe they're just really angry...

Intelligence Main article: Elephant intelligence Human, pilot whale and elephant brains up to scale. (1)-cerebrum (1a)-temporal lobe and (2)-cerebellum. With a mass just over 5 kg (11 lb), elephant brains are larger than those of any other land animal. A wide variety of behaviours associated with intelligence have been attributed to elephants, including those associated with grief, making music, art, altruism, allomothering, play, use of tools,[49] compassion and self-awareness.[50] Elephants may be on a par with other intelligent species, such as cetaceans[7] and nonhuman primates.[8] The largest areas in the elephant brain are those responsible for hearing, smell and movement coordination.

Elephant Wiki article

Today, it is difficult for elephants to live outside protected parks as they are pressured by poachers and by the habitat loss that comes with increasing human settlement.

Did You Know? The elephant is distinguished by its high level of intelligence, interesting behavior, methods of communication and complex social structure. Elephants seem to be fascinated with the tusks and bones of dead elephants, fondling and examining them. The myth that they carry them to secret "elephant burial grounds," however, has no factual base. Elephants are very social, frequently touching and caressing one another and entwining their trunks. Elephants demonstrate concern for members of their families they take care of weak or injured members and appear to grieve over a dead companion.

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Highly intelligent animal with threatened habitat... Sounds like a good reason to start eating the threatening species.

All across Africa, India, and Southeast Asia, elephants have been striking out, destroying villages and crops, and attacking and killing human beings. In recent years, elephants have killed nearly 1,000 people in India. In Africa, reports of human-elephant conflicts appear almost daily, from Zambia to Tanzania, and Uganda to Sierra Leone. "Where for centuries humans and elephants lived in relatively peaceful coexistence, there is now hostility and violence," says Gay Bradshaw, an elephant researcher and psychologist at Oregon State University.

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So that could be a good reason to eat people...way to go humans!

Hmm now I'm wondering whether or not I started this thread in the right forum...

reply to post by Solar.Absolution


I think this may be because we are destroying they're habitat. Could also be b/c of the different types of rays and clouds seeping in through Space. That could be causing a reaction in the brains of all life here on Earth.

Sounds like an elephant open to new experiences, he wanted to try some new food. Good thing they killed him before he reported back to his homies about humans being delicious.

reply to post by packinupngoin


Interesting theory

reply to post by LetsTouch


Yeah since they all learn from each other.

This makes me wonder about the woolly mammoths and mastodons???
Did they also eat humans to supplement their diets as well during those harsh periods?

This thread surprised me because elephants are usually herbivores i think the problem is were moving in on there territories takeing away there natural food supply..elephants are smart and starvation makes them desperate its a sad situation for both the people and the elephants

reply to post by Solar.Absolution
Your intuition was more than likely right. That video is full of jump-cuts and segues into scenes that have no context. The only thing stringing them together is the narrative and that could have been added back in the studio of some New York production company for all we know.

Elephants have killed a lot of people over the years, but 'eating' them is like a story straight out of South Park.

reply to post by Solar.Absolution


Why would they do DNA tests on the contents of its stomach?
That makes no sense.

I think someone watched to many CSI episodes.

reply to post by Solar.Absolution


Humans are destroying their habitat and encroaching on their land. I feel angry and annoyed they killed this magnificent and intelligent animal.

from article:
According to zoologist Dave Salmoni, humans are to blame for the herbivore's shocking behavior. In this clip from his new TV show, he claims this particular man-eating elephant lashed out in an act of revenge after her calf was killed.

Elephants have recently witnessed their homes destroyed to make room for crop fields. Raids have forced elephant herds to split up, and the animals can grow exhausted and increasingly stressed and in turn, aggressive.
......

typical.

My thoughts are it's an aberration.

Occasionally, an animal can develop a mental illness, or have some type brain tumor, or other trauma to the brain, and behave irrationally. (Like the shark in Jaws. Great Whites don't normally behave that way, but a shark like that would be displaying irrational behavior, just like some humans do, so it's possible, just like it is for this elephant.)

reply to post by Solar.Absolution


I heard a story the other day about a group of wild elephants that will randomly march into a town in India and destroy the houses of whoever is persecuting Christian missionaries. They stomp only those specific houses and then line up and march away peacefully. They are nicknamed the Christian elephants lol.

I wonder if this man eating elephant is one of 'em?