Elephants: The Sentient cradles .... humanity (2017)

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Title: 'Elephants: The Sentient cradles of emotions and our forgotten humanity'
Year: 2017
Medium: Acrylic, ink, watercolour and papier-mâché on canvas
Measurements: 7cm x 7cm

African elephants are found grazing in forests and savannah across 37 countries south of the Sahara Desert, ranging from the dense rainforests of Gabon and Congo to the rustling steppes of South Africa, Botswana, Kenya and Zimbabwe, amongst others. Other more considerably endangered subspecies include the Asian Elephant which sparsely inhabits the twinkling paradisiacal jungles of India, Malaysia, Cambodia, Vietnam and much of Southeast Asia, followed by even fewer numbers of its pygmy cousins the Borneo elephant, Javan elephant and Sumatran elephant (each residing only in pinpointed trifling islands and smaller regions of Indonesia and Kalimantan that they were named after).

In addition, these mammals are a keystone species, playing a fundamental echelon in maintaining the biodiversity of the ecosystems they inhabit. During the dry season, elephants use their tusks to dig for water, making it available to other animals and then plugging the hole with a ball made from chewed bark to prevent the water from evaporating to save it for later use. When elephants eat they create gaps in the vegetation, which in turn form natural animal paths as well as helping to scatter seeds and other fruit droppings to the forest floor and feeding other smaller creatures.

Primordially, these intelligent animals are sentient beings proving how exceptionally smart they already are in an anatomical regard, since they possess the largest brain of any land animal and three times as many neurons as humans to process and control the animal's large and dexterous body. Known as a documented fact. Elephants have a long lasting memory recognising lifelong friends and navigating through extensive distances to reach waterholes. Withal, these beings can distinguish between idioms as well as human body language and display feelings of empathy or mourning.

In 2012, Dr Angela Stoeger remarkably described how an Asian elephant named Koshik found researchers dumfounded when the animal was able to say five words in Korean, matching its voice pitch to his trainer despite having a longer vocal tract, the absence of lips replaced by a trunk and a huge larynx. Furthermore, researchers at the University of Sussex in Brighton have stated that the African counterparts can identify differences in human gender, status, age, and ethnicity through their personal recollection of voices and accents in an exercise which used recordings from both Kamba and Maasai people. If the voice belonged to a person who was more likely to pose a threat, the elephants were seen to switch into defensive mode. Recordings made by women and children of either tribe left the elephants calm, contrary to male voices of the Maasai tribe which revealed distressful signs of fear with adult elephants huddling to protect their young and turning away from the voice. This fearful behaviour astonishingly did not translate to Kamba males showing a conscious and sentient decision based on the echo of past experiences and being able to discern other species and genders. Elephants even teach us humans as the alcoholic drink (named after the same berry) was only made into a creamy concoction after seeing its effects on elephants who readily consume the Amarula berry for its taste and inhibiting effects, as well as the infamous Kopi Luwak and Black Ivory Coffee used after being ingested by the animal which gives it's unique aroma, flavour and price tag. Find more information on elephant behavioural traits by visiting Mental Floss official website, article written by Jessica Hullinger.

The artwork exhibits in a kaleidoscopic manner an elephant's diet and what they are killed or mistreated for, while being surrounded by an array of flags of the countries they inhabit in an attempt to raise awareness which annually dwindles to the cravings for erotic mutis and deranged ego practices that legitimise a thirst for blood and monetary gain. This makes humans the only threat to this majestic mammal which has no other predators once it has reached its adult stage. The African gentle giant is hunted for sport and its ivory tusks, while its Asian counterparts on the norm are tortured to perform as a touristic attractions as well as stalked, mutilated and skinned. According to the World Wide Fund for Nature, Female Asian and baby elephants free from an alabaster burden allowed Myanmar’s female elephants to significantly outnumber males who were still being killed for ivory. However, a recent — and indiscriminate — spree of elephant killings in Myanmar suggests that poachers are no longer exclusively interested in tusks but have expanded their oeuvre to elephant skin, feet and genitalia. Female African elephants have tusks and therefore are killed due to their size, leaving an increasing number of orphaned baby elephants which causes in turn the collapse of the elephant's social structure as well as effectively decimating their numbers of future generations.

At the turn of the 20th century and after the 1970s poaching boom, statistics were worrisome with African elephants being in the few million and a mere 100,000 Asian elephants. Nowadays, there are an estimated 450,000 African elephants and between 35,000 - 40,000 wild Asian elephants. To give you a mental picture, the UN reports that 100 African elephants are killed per day, as well as Rohit Singh, Wildlife Law enforcement specialist for the WWF, who asserts that "We’ve lost more elephants in the past five months than in the whole of 2016". Elephant counts have dropped by 62% in the last decade, and they could be almost extinct by the end of 2030, since they are slaughtered faster than they can reproduce.

A yearning lust for ivory and other animal products in clandestine markets makes the illegal ivory trade extremely lucrative, tripling its value between 2010 and 2014 due to a global ban. This trade is illegal today, yet governments view animal rights as unanchored flexible morals reminiscent from wonderland idealist politics which need to be revised every four years making elephant populations remain in a vulnerable-endangered status, as well as continuing to perpetuate an contemptuous attitude towards anything not human. Undoubtedly I am referring to the recent attempt to revoke to the ban over Ivory imports and trophy hunting. As an intelligent sentient society learning from its history mistakes, misconceived judgement, inventions and discoveries shouldn't governing body embody these principles and thus animal rights violations be unmovable and constitutional. If the elephants are to survive, the demand for ivory must be drastically reduced.

Please refer to World Elephant Day for more information and events on how to help these majestic animals.

To sign the petition against the poaching and trophy hunting which recently was reviewed in the United States to allow Americans to hunt elephants in Africa and bring their remains home, follow the link below.

https://secure.avaaz.org/campaign/en/trump_vs_elephants_42/…

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