Whether it's an Asian elephant or an African elephant, they are not docile. Elephants, though animals, are a complex emotion, high-intelligence social animal. They and humans alike will have various emotions and behaviors, such as: pain, sadness, joy, frustration, distress and even love.

Elephant Graveyard

Due to the value of ivory, the poverty of Africa, a large number of elephants have died at the hands of humans' guns, and many adventurers delve deep into the jungle, searching for elephant tombs. Because there has been a story in Africa that when elephants sense their impending death, they will leave their herds, traverse mountains and rivers, and go to the herds' historically passed down burial grounds, quietly awaiting death. If you find an elephant herd's burial ground, it also indicates a large amount of ivory will be found.

In 'Science and Culture' an article by researcher Zhao Bin of the Chinese research team was published, searching for elephant tombs. The team included dogs and guides, and they followed a dying elephant far away. After several times of being discovered and almost lost, they finally found the tomb in a cave. When preparing to enter, a dying elephant sensed the presence of other creatures and rushed out. It was, of course, no match for humans' guns, and before dying, it let out several sorrowful, protracted cries. Shortly after, a large number of elephant herds appeared, seemingly determined to guard the sacred ground. The expedition suffered heavy casualties, but the local guides still kept talking about the treasure in the cave, and several times they attempted to seize the route map. The Chinese explorer realized human greed, and destroyed the mysterious route map he had painstakingly completed.

Similarly, many articles have been cited in the Chinese textbook for sixth graders of primary school: 'The Last War Elephant'

These articles explain that the number of elephant deaths and disappearances is far greater than the number of elephant skeletons discovered. However, scientists believe that burial grounds are lies created by hunters to conceal their slaughter of elephants.

Elephant Funeral

Elephant Graveyard really exists or not, I don't think it's important, because many materials show that elephants are a species with a highly social behavior and complex emotions. For example, in Sri Lanka, the natural reserve has once been filmed a scene of an elephant funeral. In this funeral, about 300 elephants came one after another, they used their trunks to gently touch the deceased elephant. According to a research by Oxford University, elephants will feel saddened when their companions leave, and they will even visit the cemeteries of deceased companions regularly to show their grief.

In some elephant herds, elephants will suddenly stop and circle around one elephant. The center elephant will soon suddenly collapse. The companions will let out a cry, and they will dig up straw, stones and mud with their tusks and trunks, and bury the deceased. When the covering is complete, they will press this pile of earth, and they will turn around several times before leaving. At the same time, passing elephant herds will also participate.

'Docile' Elephants

Behind these phenomena, we can see the high social behavior and complex emotional relationships of elephants. Elephants occupy a noble position in Thailand, India and other Southeast Asian countries. Southeast Asian guides will tell tourists that elephants are incarnations of gods. A large number of temples have elephants for people to make wishes. A large number of elephants are also called 'genius painters', and tourist attractions sell paintings, and you can also ride on them. In my opinion, this is the biggest hypocrisy in Southeast Asian culture.

As incarnations of gods, they are actually labor and profit tools. The high complexity of the animal only reflects docile aspects, which is a cruel emotional suppression and taming process. They call the elephants 'docile' and 'obedient', which is a great mockery to the elephants.

Young elephants often experience cruel taming processes, so they learned to obey humans' will, and they have no real life.

When tourists ride on 'docile' elephants, pay attention to the 'driver' hook on the elephant's forehead. If you don't listen, the consequences will be unthinkable.

An elephant's forehead is extremely sensitive, so this little elephant always likes to express itself.

Elephants that are locked up must remain motionless for several hours. If the straight stick standing beside it falls, it will be severely punished. However, elephants' bodies are naturally designed for movement, and wild elephants usually walk tens of kilometers every day to find food and water.

The huge body weight can cause leg joints and foot pads to be subjected to great pressure if it remains motionless for a long time. Confined elephants suffer from early arthritis and foot rot because of it, but they can only bite their teeth and persevere for humans to work for decades. For this adult male elephant, due to the high intensity of work, it has seriously reduced its weight, almost no belly, and its hind limbs are also obviously thin and weak, and its eyes are blind, which is helpful for controlling it.

A long-term commercial performance elephant has lost its sight and has been used for passenger transport. Rescuers found that after the dry eyes of the elephant, which had been dry for a long time, actually cried!

In summary, 'docile' Asian elephants are not really 'docile'. When humans invade their territory and establish villages, the Asian elephant herds will often clash with humans and fight against them. Starting from the 19th century, the number of wild Asian elephants decreased by as much as 97%, and only 300 Asian elephants remained in China's Southwest China's Xishuangbanna National Park, protecting them.

African elephants seem to live more independently, but they live in hiding and are burdened with blame.