Elephants are racists! : Pharyngula

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PZ Myers is a biologist and associate professor at the University of Minnesota, Morris.
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« Use this as an excuse to party | Main | Human beings can be hateful to one another »

Elephants are racists!

Category: Science
Posted on: November 24, 2007 1:05 PM, by PZ Myers

They discriminate against people with sharp pointy spears!

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Comments

Posted by: danley | November 24, 2007 2:05 PM

Better warn Al Sharpton.

Posted by: Qrazyqat | November 24, 2007 2:53 PM

When I was a teen I used to hunt in southern Minnesota and I never could get close enough to a crow out in hunting territory to shoot one. Not when I had a gun, that is. I was a decent stalker but when crossing a field where the flock could see me, from an enormous distance, they'd fly off... if I had a gun. I even tried holding the rifle on the side opposite them, blcoking it with my body, and they'd fly off. No gun, no flight.

Interesting. A long string of coincidences? Maybe. Reading my body language? Maybe. Just interesting.

You know, these animals' lives depend on their being able to read signs. Funny how we're so often surprised to find they can read them really well.

Posted by: Speedwell | November 24, 2007 3:04 PM

Sure, but has anyone tested donkeys?

Posted by: MonoApe | November 24, 2007 3:26 PM

V. v. true. As a younger man, I enjoyed wandering out with a gun to find something to 'put under a pastry sky'. Rabbits and wood pigeon (yumm) recognised the 'long pointy stick', and ran as though their lives depended on it.

Sans 'stick', they eyed me with wariness.

Corvids (crows, magpies, etc.) were even more finely tuned to it. If I was 'out on a mission', they'd be flying to the next county before I'd climbed over the gate to the field. If all I carried was a camera, they'd casually walk away if I got within 30 metres.

I only carry a camera nowadays.

Posted by: woozy | November 24, 2007 4:38 PM

Not to over anthropomorphize but crows are damned smart animals. Don't have explanations just how the crows "knew" you had a gun or knew your intent, but I have no doubt that they did "know".

Posted by: Laser Potato | November 24, 2007 6:46 PM

A POIN'ED STICK?
Ooh ooh ooh, we want to learn about poin'ed sticks now do we??

Posted by: Bride of Shrek | November 25, 2007 1:26 AM

When I first read the title of the post I thought it said "sharp pointy EARS" and my initial thought was they'd be buggered on Vulcan then. I kid you not.

...I mention this only to make you all feel better in the knowledge that when you're feeling stumped or a bit daft, there is someone out there who is really thicker than you.

Posted by: DocAmazing | November 25, 2007 4:16 PM

Already posted this link at Greg Laden's site, but movie fans with long memories may remember a difficult-to-watch film from 1982 called "White Dog" that involved similar themes:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0084899/

Excellent film, but not for the faint of heart.