h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Nice entry! I would love to see an elephant in the wild...

I agree! Great entry, and elephants are second to none in mammals I most want to see in the wild ... right after them come rhinos. I guess I have a thing for very large mammals, cause after the rhino comes whales. And not the smallish country to the west of England, either. Though I wouldn't mind seeing that either, at some point. Anyway, back to elephants, I always was intrigued by the way they are so close to humans in their emotions. One wonders if there are any elephant philosophers or scientists or religious founders.

- JD

white elephant is worshipped in asia in budhist religion and in hinduism his head is considered to be a symbolof great inteligence

Thanks for this article!

I've been lucky enough to see elephants in the wild, in India.
Quite an amazing experience.


I've also been lucky enough to visit the elephant orphanage in Sri Lanka. There was a youngish elephant there who had part of his(?) leg blown off by a landmine.

But he was surprisingly mobile! I'm sure I heard somewhere that they were investigating fitting him with an artificial leg.

http://www.elephant.se/pinnawela_elephant_orphanage_Sri_Lanka.php



I like the idea of elephant philosophers....

"I like the idea of elephant philosophers...."

I sort of borrowed the idea from Pratchett - he had camel mathemeticians, and I figured that elephants would make pretty good philosophers, though they don't seem to argue nearly enough. Perhaps they do and we just haven't noticed.

- JD

Aww, thanks you guys! I'm glad you like it. It took me a while to fix up, mainly because there's just so much information out there on Elephants! I didn't even touch the cultural aspect, just because it would have taken me much too long. If any of you want to take a whack at it, go right ahead.

I would love to visit an Elephant orphanage. Elephants are awesome animals. I couldn't believe we didn't have an article on them!

Thanks for reading, everyone. That's a two out of two added to the guide for me! I'm very happy.

See you around!