Is this for real? Did this elephant really paint a portrait of an elephant?

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I only caught the end of the segment of the evening news the other night, but apparently they paint a white mark on their foreheads, and in a group of them reflected in a mirror, they can pick themselves out, and therefore have an objective perception of themselves, and can be taught be to do this. They recognize themselves as we would, and thus can paint like this. Isn't it way cool.

Oh yes, if you do a search for 'elephant art' you will find that there is quite a lot of it about. It's sold to raise money for elephant conservation projects.

wow, that is really amazing. it certainly looked real.

That was....WOW!

I can't see how it was faked. They were willing to do it on camera. They probably trained for quite a while but that doesn't take away from the fact that the elephant still did it. Pretty neat. The flower was a fascinating touch. Thanks for sharing video

a trainer is helping, but yes they do paint... according to an article i read yesterday about this , there are several animals the will paint (with human aid to some degree) and then ofcourse there is the book about cats painting...and some cats actually do paint by pouncing on their canvas with paint on their paws...
but non of my cats ever painted, they won't even pose...

Wow! Loved the cats, especially the one playing with the printer, amazed at elephant, admired the turtle, and laughed aloud at the little dog! Thanks.

it is real - they use elephants to paint signs, billboards, all kinds of things. They are fairly intelligent animals.

It has been well known for a long time that an elephant can follow a very light line on a piece of paper.

Even a line so faint that it is difficult to see.

Love and blessings Don

Wonder is never surprised at how smart, intelligent, sweet, loving, creative and amazing ALL animals are.
Wonder loves elephants and all animals and is always in awe of them.
:))))
Awesome video, thanks so much. :))))