r/MadeMeSmile • u/nikulmmadhu • 5d ago

ANIMALS Elephant rescues man from a flood in India

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u/DesiBwoy 5d ago

It's a shame that people can't tell that it's an elephant-master situation. That man knew how to expertly climb an elephant, and the elephant knew how to respond to the climbing effort. Anyone who has seen a mahout climb an elephant knew what they were looking at.

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u/blueViolet26 5d ago

Exactly. It is not wild elephant helping a human. It is an elephant raised in captivity doing what she was trained to do.

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u/totally_not_a_dog113 5d ago

I'd still think it's pretty sweet if a captive raised elephant rescued random human. To be fair, they have rescued random other animals, like that random gazelle who fell in the water at a zoo. I trained my dog how to respond if I was crying about something, since his original response was to try to claw your hands away from your face. One day we were out walking on campus, and this random kid was upset sitting on a bench with his hands on his face. My dog kicked into 'respond to upset human' mode by jumping up on the dude's leg and licking him the face. And then trotting off. The kid looked horrified.

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u/2woCrazeeBoys 4d ago

My horse slipped and fell while tied up, and landed on me. As horses do, she started off by scrabbling and thrashing trying to get up, but her head was at an awkward angle because she tied. Wasn't fun being under a scrabbling, thrashing horse.

Soon as she realised I was underneath, she just went dead still. I managed to get to the clip on the lead rope, and get her to hold her head the right way so I could unclip it. She waited for me to tell her to move, and rolled off me in a way I've never seen a horse get up before.

Maybe it is a captive animal and not wild, but it's still an animal exercising their agency to the benefit of another. It shows empathy, and the understanding of other minds that humans like to claim as unique.

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u/Hairy-Violinist-3844 4d ago

I've seen horses act in some unlikely ways at times. It made me see their sentience in a way I hadn't before. 

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u/Lou_C_Fer 4d ago

I think that at this point we need to see that sentience in every living creature. For most of human history, we denied consciousness in animals. People today will still claim that animals don't feel emotion. Shit, for the longest time it was thought that babies do not experience pain like we do as we get older.

I dont know how that misinfo lasted for so long when anybody that has experience with animals and babies knows better... yet, it still happened.

My point is, animals are their own beings and should be treated as such. I've stopped killing bugs. Spiders and house centipedes are welcome in my home.

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u/HIMP_Dahak_172291 3d ago

Spiders and house centipedes are frens. Mosquitoes still get the shit slapped out of them. Gotta thin the genepool of the ones that think I am tasty.

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u/Upstairs-Egg 3d ago

You’re a beautiful person. Thank you for your empathy and compassion. (Which are linked to higher intelligence too btw so thank you for being one of the smart ones. 💙)

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u/Little-Ad1235 2d ago

The thing that always really strikes me about dogs and horses is how willing they can be to not just obey, but to truly partner with a human. Like, in working situations, people routinely rely on them to make their own decisions based on their understanding of their person's goals. Obviously, training and selective breeding are a big part of it, but the existence of something like a seeing-eye dog is so improbable it's nearly miraculous when you really stop to think about it.

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u/blueViolet26 10h ago

Dogs are bred to behave a certain way. The ones that didn’t fit the mold. Got killed. Horses aren’t willing allowing humans to climb on their back. Are they? People have a very romanticized view of our relationship with the animals under our control.

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u/tracingtime 1d ago

I've had horses not step down hard onto me when I had fallen just in their stride (I'm pretty sure they stopped when realizing it was flesh not sand or something - I had a hoof mark but nothing squashed!), save me from falling off as well as try to avoid me when their rider steered them into me at a very fast speed (user error!!) and more. They are aware and awesome. They can also be dicks. :)

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u/2woCrazeeBoys 17h ago

I've had some amazing horses that did the same. I have very fond memories of horses that taught to me ride and would shrug me back on board when I was losing my balance, or get themselves back underneath me somehow.

And yeah, some of them are dicks 😆. Had one that was can and would bite to hurt at any opportunity. He got renamed PacMan.

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u/blueViolet26 5d ago

The article said it was the owner, not a random human.

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u/Grenrion 5d ago

Yes but we do also know elephants do sometimes help other animals when in danger.

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u/blueViolet26 5d ago

This is not one of those cases

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u/Grenrion 5d ago

Yes that's obvious.

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u/blueViolet26 5d ago

So why mention anything when it doesn't apply?

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u/galacticcheekclapper 4d ago

Because people like to contribute to the overall conversation, christ dude. Its called social skills.

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u/blueViolet26 4d ago

I find it annoying when people bring up anything that is not relevant to the conversation. Also stop assuming everyone on Reddit is a dude.

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u/galacticcheekclapper 4d ago

No ine cares that you find it annoying ita a public forum. Also stop assuming dude isn't gender neutral. Good burger answered this in the 90's already "I'm a dude, he's a dude, she's a dude, cuz we're all dudes. YEA!" now lighten up and stop trying to be annoyed at people. Social skills my dude.

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u/blueViolet26 4d ago

Interesting how male is genders neutral now. You should follow your own advice.

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u/shitpostbot42069 3d ago

I don’t think she was trained to walk through flood waters, but I see what you’re saying

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u/dac3062 3d ago

So they trained the Elephant to rescue flood victims? I would like to think they had a bond.

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u/blueViolet26 3d ago

I don’t if the elephant was rescuing people from flood. But they apparently have done that before. I don’t like how this elephant was taken away from her family and is potentially being used by a human.

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u/Key_Protection9340 2d ago

Bro your dogs are captive too all pets are

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u/blueViolet26 2d ago

Well, dogs have been domesticated for thousands of years at this point. They are completely dependent on us for their survival. Elephants are wild animals. They were taken away from their families and habitat. I a, against domestication too, but this is not the kind of topic most people on Reddit are capable of having.

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u/Strong_Essay1176 3d ago

Shame on you shaming people.

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u/Thomas_I_Bell 2d ago

Its a shame? How is 99% of the population expected to know that

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u/Excellent_Recover_86 1d ago

It’s a shame that people know what an elephant-master situation looks like.

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u/SunshineAlways 4d ago

When the dude scrambled right up the elephant, I immediately thought, I wouldn’t have thought to do that!

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u/Saint_Sin 4d ago

Do you have any proof to support this claim?
The link above does not have any.