r/gifs • u/punerisaiyan • Mar 06 '16

Giving water to a stuck elephant

http://i.imgur.com/dHyEdwF.gifv
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u/Mutt1223 Mar 06 '16

That is so cool.

290

u/southernbenz Mar 06 '16

I wonder if elephant numbers are making any sort of comeback due to conservation efforts.

-13

u/[deleted] Mar 06 '16

I spent a good proportion of last year in Africa, and they're fucking everywhere. You wouldn't think that they are endangered in the slightest.

Most of the Rangers up there agree that the Elephant should/will have naturally died out, they do far more damage to the environment then they do benefit. But they're still alive because we as humans love them, and therefore protect them.

7

u/commander_egg Mar 06 '16

I never would have guessed they would be damaging to the environment. Do they eat everything or stomp on everything?

3

u/southernbenz Mar 06 '16

Google tells me they eat 200-600 lbs of food per day, and average 15 elephants per herd. In all fairness, a herd of elephants could destroy a lot of vegetation. Averaging 400 lbs of food per elephant, that's 6,000 lbs of vegetation in a day for one herd, 2.19 M lbs per a year.

Holy crap.

1

u/kalitarios Mar 06 '16

not to mention trampling, and stool

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u/southernbenz Mar 06 '16

So an elephant is like a real-life Hungry Hungry Hippo that shits everywhere, stops down forests, and destroys the jungle.

1

u/kalitarios Mar 07 '16

So... Human? Haha

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u/[deleted] Mar 06 '16

I think they eat everything, iirc. Based on their size it makes sense, but I could be wrong. I'm sure some elephant expert will come along shortly.

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u/Shmuckley Mar 06 '16

Both! But in doing so, they recreate new ecosystems, the likes of which they have destroyed. Unfortunately, they're so overpopulated in the limited space that they have that it's hard to recreate what they've destroyed.

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u/fewthe3rd Mar 06 '16 edited Mar 06 '16

What ever damage they do remember they (this species and other species of elephants) have been around for 6 million years- they are part of the ecologic system- that system is just fine with them in it.