Elephants' graveyard
An elephants' graveyard (also written elephant graveyard or elephant's graveyard) is a place where, according to legend, older elephants instinctively direct themselves when they reach a certain age. They then die there alone, far from the group.
Origin
Several theories are given about the myth's origin. One theory involves people finding groups of elephant skeletons together, or observing old elephants and skeletons in the same habitat.[1] Others suggest the term may spring from group die-offs, such as one excavated in Saxony-Anhalt, which had 27 Palaeoloxodon antiquus skeletons.[2] In that particular case, the tusks of the skeletons were missing, which indicated either hunters killed a group of elephants in one spot, or else opportunistic scavengers removed the tusks from a natural die-off.
Other theories focus on elephant behavior during lean times, suggesting starving elephants gather in places where finding food is easier, and subsequently die there.[3] Similarly, Rupert Sheldrake notes that elephant skeletons are frequently found in groups near permanent sources of water and suggests elephants suffering from malnutrition instinctively seek out sources of water in the hopes of improving their condition. The elephants that do not improve develop increasingly low blood sugar, slip into a coma and die. Finally, older elephants whose teeth have worn out (typically after their sixth set of teeth) seek out soft water plants and eventually die near watering holes.[4]
The myth was popularised in films such as Trader Horn and MGM's Tarzan movies, in which groups of greedy explorers attempt to locate the elephants' graveyard, on the fictional Mutia Escarpment, in search of its riches of ivory.[5] More recently, Walt Disney's The Lion King referred to the motif. Also, one episode of Kimba the White Lion revolved around it. A character from the The X-Files episode "Fearful Symmetry" which revolves around a mysterious invisible elephant, refers to the concept as fact.
Prolific elephant hunter, Walter "Karamojo" Bell, discounted the idea of the elephant's graveyard, stating that bones and "tusks were still lying about in the bush where they had lain for years".[6]
Derivative meanings
In geology, "elephants' graveyard" is an informal term for a hypothetical accumulation of "large blocks of country rock stoped from the roofs of batholiths".[7]
See also
- Elephant intelligence and reports of elephant death rituals
References
- ^ Armitage, Kenneth B.; Buss, Irven O. (March 1992). "The Great Beast — Elephant Life: Fifteen Years of High Population Density". BioScience. 42 (3). BioScience, Vol. 42, No. 3: 196–197. doi:10.2307/1311827. JSTOR 1311827.
- ^ Brühl, Enrico (22–25 September 2003). "Neumark-Nord: a middle Pleistocene lake shore with synchronous sites of different functional character". Données récentes sur les modalités de peuplement en Europe au Paléolithique inférieur et moyen. Rennes: Université de Rennes.
{{cite conference}}: Unknown parameter|booktitle=ignored (|book-title=suggested) (help); Unknown parameter|coauthors=ignored (|author=suggested) (help) - ^ Iain Douglas-Hamilton, Richard Barnes, Hezy Shoshani, A. Christy Williams, A. J. T. Johnsingh, Robin Beck, Katy Payne "Elephants" The Encyclopedia of Mammals. Ed. David W. Macdonald. Oxford University Press, 2007. Oxford Reference Online. Oxford University Press.28 August 2007 <http://www.oxfordreference.com/views/ENTRY.html?subview=Main&entry=t227.e47>
- ^ Elephant issue of Zoobooks
- ^ Earnhart, Brady (1 July 2007). "A Colony of the Imagination: Vicarious Spectatorship in MGM's Early Tarzan Talkies". Quarterly Review of Film and Video. 24 (4): 341–352. doi:10.1080/10509200500526778.
{{cite journal}}:|access-date=requires|url=(help) - ^ Bell, Walter (1949). Karamojo Safari. Harcourt, Brace. p. 26. ISBN 1-57157-358-5.
- ^ Clarke, D. Barrie (10 September 1998). "Exploding xenoliths and the absence of 'elephants' graveyards' in granite batholiths". Journal of Structural Geology. 20 (9–10): 1325–1343. doi:10.1016/S0191-8141(98)00082-0.
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External links
- www.upali.ch/teeth_en.html Teeth, second dentition, tusks - Contains information about the relevance of elephant teeth to the elephant graveyard myth
- The Elephant Debate - Contains information about the elephant graveyard myth.