An elk saved a marmot from drowning.

[lonestarnot]

http://www.kpho.com/story/14969043/elk-saves-animal-from-drowning

There's a pic over there.


..."For 15 minutes, Shooter circled the tank and was able to position his antlers and reach into the water, grabbing the marmot out, set him on the ground, and began nudging him with his hoof."

:7

[snagglepuss]

1. Zoo officials say the elk's behavior can be credited to his lifestyle at the zoo.

"The basic needs are being met, so you start to see a little bit more elaborate behavior," O'Connor said. "They're engaging their brains in different ways that would have been basically for survival in the wild, but now is a little more complicated and advanced."


Amazing they caught this on tape. Recently I've seen a spate of articles about one animal species saving another. Wierd.

[lonestarnot]

3. I don't know if I believe that part. How would we know that.

[Obamanaut]

9. How else could that behavior set have been gotten? nt

[roguevalley]

15. a bunch of dolphins kept a guy's body afloat when he was killed

recently. they stayed with it and tried to help him. Animals are wonderful.

[yardwork]

22. Lots of stories of dolphins saving people's lives, too.

[alphafemale]

17. It sounds as if someone is applying Human Psychology 101 to animals.

As in Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. I always thought that was pretty much bullshit and elitist to the extreme. It is basically saying that someone who doesn't know where their next meal is coming from is not capable of altruism or higher thought.

[yardwork]

21. I agree with you. In fact, I thought that the zoo keepers comments were hilarious.

Right. An animal could not possibly have come up with the idea of saving another animal's life unless that animal had lived in a zoo.

[Flubadubya]

27. Hippo saves gazelle in wildest Africa...

Yep, zoo life is not the reason.

Many years ago I remember seeing a National Geographic special on TV that showed a hippopotamus in a river in Africa saving a young gazelle from drowning. Somehow the gazelle ended up in his river and was in distress. The hippo came along and gently nudged the creature out of the water and onto the bank. It then stood for several minutes by it nudging it.

I was quite impressed with this because I thought it clearly demonstrated that animals are capable of real compassion also. That I do believe.

[KittyWampus]

33. It's a video of a hippo saving a gazelle from an alligator. Hippo rescues it, brings it to shore

and seems to be caressing the fatally wounded gazelle with its open mouth.

[misanthrope]

14. If that's the case...

...if we're to believe that an animal's basic needs being met in comfort allow its higher brain functions to develop, then it's evidence we are on the wrong track.

Most of our problems are essentially the root of overpopulation. Pollution, famine, winnowing resources, it can all be traced to the rampant escalation in our numbers. Without that, with our needs being more fully met, with the value of each life being elevated due to lesser numbers and more resources per human, then by that logic our higher brain functions would develop more fully.

Are we are cashing in our future on the current course? Can we emphasize quality over quantity and more completely fulfill the capacity nature has provided to us, or will we continue down our breakneck course to self-annihilation?

The answer comes from nowhere but us.

[Flubadubya]

26. Delete,,,

response to wrong post.

[guruoo]

16. Microcosm of America nt

[bigmonkey]

29. This explains it all!

The Republicans want to put us all back in survival mode, to prevent all of that altruistic behavior that naturally comes out whenever survival is no longer at issue. Now I understand.

[nadinbrzezinski]

2. Or, since they are at a zoo

we are privileged to see behaviors otherwise we never expect to see.

Having seen this with my conures I no longer think we are that above them to be honest.

[lonestarnot]

4. Zactly. How do we know what they do in the wild. That was a zoo pusher dreaming that crap.

That was just good elk medicine. :7

[nadinbrzezinski]

7. Some of the things we have seen the conures do

like Cookie using the push to talk button and regaling perfect strangers with his screeches over the computer... people can tell me we are more intelligent all they want... no we are not.

[Hawkowl]

10. We must be less intelligent

Why? Because it seems that many animals understand OUR language and meanings, whereas, we seem to be dismal failures at understanding theirs.

[Kaleko]

5. Kick for more people to see this.

[Bozita]

6. Definitely not a GOPer elk!

The GOPer elk would have held the marmot underwater with it's hoof.

[donco]

8. Maybe he didn’t want

the marmot ..eh.. screwing up his drinking water.

[csziggy]

11. Dead animals in water troughs can cause botulism poisoning

We keep branches in our water troughs so any animals can hopefully climb out.

It doesn't always work - a few weeks ago we found a young hawk in one of the troughs. He had knocked the branch out and could not get free. When he was found, he was exhausted and suffering from hypothermia because of being in the water for a long time. We took him to a wildlife rescue place and in a week he was recovered. They brought him back out here and we set him free.

[DartingDog]

12. Idaho elk rescues cute marmot with antlers

I saw a large buck use his antlers to hook and dump a bird feeder for a very young deer who was unable to reach the seed tray. He watched her for several minutes and then moved forward, she was afraid of him and ran and hid behind her mother, he dumped the bird seed, and then moved away so she could eat. Tiny baby deer aren't much bigger than marmots and the same color, so maybe the cute baby face appealed to him.

[surrealAmerican]

18. Interesting idea.

I had figured it might have more to do with keeping the water from being fouled, but you may be right.


... and welcome to DU.

[SDuderstadt]

13. Why is it pronounced...

mar~maht and not mar~moh?

Shouldn't the "t" be silent?

[scarletwoman]

24. "Shouldn't the "t" be silent?" Can't be. Marmots are notorious slurpers.

[starroute]

19. Video here

http://dailypicksandflicks.com/2011/06/25/elk-saves-marmot-from-drowning-video/

[malaise]

20. How sweet

Rec

[Octafish]

23. The Elk did CPR, too.

Nudging the little marmot back to breathing.

Thank you for the heads-up, lonestarnot! Us mammals got to stick together.

[OneGrassRoot]

25. Read this:

An excerpt from the article:

"The basic needs are being met, so you start to see a little bit more elaborate behavior," O'Connor said. "They're engaging their brains in different ways that would have been basically for survival in the wild, but now is a little more complicated and advanced."

We humans need the same thing -- more of our fellow citizens' basic needs to be met -- so we can help more...and create more joy.

[Octafish]

28. + Infinity

Living in Detroit, I see people every day who are just surviving. This would be a different city and ours would be a different world if what you said, OneGrassRoot, were so.

[Cleita]

30. What people don't know, unless they live out in the

woods a lot, is that they have neighborhoods just like we do. The animals in a home territory usually hunt away from that territory and are protective of the home territory and their neighbors of all species. I observed this spending a year near the Canadian border in NE Washington state out in the woods working for the Forest Service.

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

31. Happy heart here! Thanks for sharing this! :)

[KittyWampus]

32. Shooter the Elk needs a friend. He looks lonely all by himself.

[xchrom]

34. Kick

[annabanana]

35. (I thought this was the set-up line for some weird joke)

Instead, it's a nice story!

[Liberal_in_LA]

36. such a cool story. thanks