12/17/2004: Elephant polo

Elephant polo! Are you kidding me?



No apparently you aren't. Apparently Scotland was this year's winner of the world championships of the sport.

I would like to see live video of this... the images, it seems, would not do it justice. Is there strategy involved? Does it move fast, or lumberingly slow? Is it dangerous? The official web site is terrible!





But it looks like they have a sense of humor about it.

Scottland? How many elephants do they have there anyway?

I thought the Alps were too cold when Hannibal went through with elephants. Isn't Scottland similar, with the highlands and higher latitudes?

I bet the elephants hate every second of it...

Dammit, I was just about to ask where PETA had been hiding...

How do we know that the elephants DON'T enjoy the game? After all, they are mammals and most mammals are known to enjoy a good game of whatever, so perhaps there are pachyderm polo fans?

It seems to me that if a multi-ton animal doesn't want to do somethig, it ain't gonna do it. And a 200 pound human would have to take extraordinary measures to force it. Especially when all the elephant would need to do is step on the offending human to eliminate the annoyance. And since I know that in standard polo, the horses have a "feel" for the game and after training can be seen anticipating their riders' commands and moving into position without rider input.

All in all, I think these elephants might be having some fun at the game too.

Brian

It IS another Chivas life experience.

I'm pretty disappointed. I was looking forward to seeing just how large a mallet you needed to whack an elephant across the scoring line...

I thought a Chivas Experience had something to do with waking up in the morning with vomit all over you, wearing someone else's underwear on your head, and not knowing why you are in jail. Or maybe that was just me.

Somehow that little velvet drawstring bag always figured in....

And wolves play frisbee?

Canines in general like to chase things that move, regardless of the object or its size. It what they do. I once knew a spritely little yorkie who would chase cars along with the big dogs and he'd always be the one still chasing after the other dogs gave up...

I wouldn't be too surprised if a curious enough wolf went after a frisbee if it soared past its field of vision. He wouldn't make flying leaps or do any aerial acrobatics to catch it in his mouth, but he would go investigate. I wonder if any wolf researchers who've gone out and spent time with the wolves ever tried that. The biggest reason why a wolf wouldn't go after it is if it's busy doing something else and they're more likely to be busy with important things like finding lunch, shelter or a mate than a pet dog would, since the pet is most likely well fed and never has to take time to worry about catching the next meal, finding a good place to bed down or (if it's fixed) find a suitable mate.

Must be hell on the greens.

Or in fact, we really don't know what in the hell these things think, but people are always gonna put a biased spin on it aren't they

We also have no idea what relationship the players have with their mounts. If it's anything like the logging elephants and their mahouts then it is entirely possible that they are both having the time of their lives.

I would like to, but I have to scrub out the inside of my brain first.

I don't know a lot about elephants, but i feel sure that if they didn't want to participate, believe me they wouldn't. I don't believe a human could "force" an animal of this size to do ANYTHING he didn't want to. I've seen mules one tenth this size (if not smaller) who refused to budge, and what could the handler do? Nary a jack shit. I saw my grandfather beat one until he was exhausted and the mule looked at him like a fly buzzing in his face. Most animals cooperate with our activities as a courtesy to us. "you feed me & I'll fetch your damn frisbee" thing. There's something we all need to remember: We need the animals. They don't need us. All species of animals did and can survive without our intervention. Could we survive without theirs? That would be tough, at least for yours truly.
They should try to train the eles to wield a mallet also. That would be a lot more dangerous, which in turn would increase the fun pressure.
Out of all animals, I still find the human to be the most difficult to understand......................

The players have no relationship as they are only passengers. The mahouts "driving" have worked with the elephant for many years so that the elephant responds to toe pressure behind the ear much as a cutting horse responds to the riders leaning. No bullhooks or cattle prods like circus trainers. The elephants and most of the mahouts respond only to Nepali so communication between the player and his mahout can get confusing.

Entering the link through the "flash" choice, the galleries have 246 pictures......with not one caption.

Looking at UT's first picture, I'd say nobody is going to give the officials any crap considering the size of the tusker they're riding.

I Love it I Love it. I haven't actually seen this played but I've been in Chiang Mai just after a game. I'm sure the elephants like playing polo, the Mahouts make the game fun for them, an animal that big could really do what they pleased to a certain extent. I know that they love kicking huge balls around, I've seen them do it in Thailand, and they have so much fun.
P.S. Merry Christmas everyone.

I once read a book by an animal trainer who maintained that animals like the challenge of learning skills. Horses are proud to run and win races- in fact you couldn't drive them to the levels of exertion to win if they didn't. No reason elephants couldn't be happy to play or win at polo. It beats being Hannibal's cavalry or hauling logs. (Anyone see the end of Alexander?) And I don't see any cattle prods.

In the wild there may be plenty of survival challenges, but as we domesticate animals they can thrive under different challenges, like frisbee catching, performing well and winning races. Some domesticated animals couldn't survive without us, btw. They lost the skills and physical attributes necessary to survive in the wild.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Leah I Love it I Love it. I haven't actually seen this played but I've been in Chiang Mai just after a game. I'm sure the elephants like playing polo, the Mahouts make the game fun for them, an animal that big could really do what they pleased to a certain extent. I know that they love kicking huge balls around, I've seen them do it in Thailand, and they have so much fun. P.S. Merry Christmas everyone.

Quote:

Originally Posted by capnhowdy ... I've seen mules one tenth this size (if not smaller) who refused to budge, ...