You will find short stories on this site. Most are autobiographical. Some are fiction.

THE ELEPHANT

Theme: Too often we humans fail to recognize the intelligence of other animals.

My family and I were on our way home to Oregon, for the summer break, following our second year in Saudi Arabia. We had stopped to visit three cities in India. While in Jaipur we all had suffered from a serious case of dysentery. While still recovering, we flew from Jaipur to Bangkok. There, in the Golden Horse hotel, we had to decide whether we should we take a three day side trip to Kathmandu or continue on to Japan. It was a choice of whether to dive back into another underdeveloped country where tainted food was a risk, or proceed to the security of Japan and teriyaki. We discussed our options and voted. The tally was 3 to 2 in favor of taking the side trip. That side trip gave us several rich and memorable experiences. This story is about one.

The next day, we flew to Kathmandu and found a budget hotel. It was unique because it was on the outskirts of the city, had straw mattresses, and a dining room overlooking a Buddhist temple with a large stupa on left, and on the right, a large downward sloping field upon which a number of locals, both men and women, were relieving themselves.

On our way to breakfast we picked up a tourists flyer from the hotel reception counter. In it was a two-line advertisement for a farm which offered elephant rides. We decided that such an experience would be fun so after breakfast we called a taxi. The driver took us into forested hills miles from Kathmandu. We were driven to a farm with a large, but poorly maintained house, and some farm out buildings. It looked like it had once been the estate of a wealthy family. As I was negotiating with the cab driver to wait for us. A man approached, he was pleased to learn that we had come for a ride on his elephant. While we waited he walked out of sight among the farm buildings. Soon he returned, followed by a large elephant and his mahout. The elephant had a wooden platform securlly strapped to it’s shoulders.

The mahout placed a ladder against the elephant so we could climb up onto the platform which was furnished with cushions and a four inch high railing along the sides so we would not slide off. It was just large enough for our family, two adults and three children. The elephant assisted the mahout with it’s leg as he climbed up and took his place sitting on the elephant’s neck. Using gestures, as he spoke no English, he advised us to stay seated on the cushions provided. He then turned and said something to the elephant, and we were off.

The elephant lumbered out of the farm and plodded along a trail into the densely forested hills. As he walked, the elephant was being tormented by an oversized horse fly which was attempting to bite him his tail, out of reach of the his trunk. The elephant blew dust at the fly, in an unsuccessful attempt to dissuade it. Then as we continued along the forest path, without pausing, the elephant reached over and uprooted a small tree. Apparently he had been looking for a sapling, that had the desirable configuration to strike that part of his posterior. When he found the right tree, without breaking stride, he wrapped his trunk around the base of it and pulled it out of the ground. It had a five foot long trunk and a crown of small limbs, it resembled a very large bottle brush. Sitting atop that elephant, carrying a tree by the base of it’s trunk, I wondered “What is he was going to do with that tree.” The elephant kept walking holding the tree up like a trophy. He was apparently waiting until he felt the fly, through his pachyderm hide. Then reaching along his side with his trunk, he swung the tree down on his rump with considerable force. He used the tree as a fly swatter. In doing so he either smashed the fly or convinced it to go away, as it no longer bothered him. By reaching along his side to swing the tree, instead over his back, which would have been the more direct approach, he swatted that fly on his rump with out jeopardizing his passengers, us, who were sitting, out of his sight, and less that two feet from the fly.

We read about how chimps demonstrate intelligence by using a stem to catch termites, and how some birds can use a conveniently placed sticks, to retrieve peanuts from a box. Those “intelligent” acts pale in comparison to what I observed from the back of that elephant in Nepal. Contrary to what most humans would like to think, we are not so much more intelligent than other animals on this planet. We just like to tell each other that we are.