What are we humans doing to the elephants?

Paola Cavalieri, Independent Online
October 21, 2007

One of the consequences of the culling of elephants in South Africa in the 1970s and 1980s was the breakdown of elephant societies.
After the destruction of their patterns of attachment and of their stored knowledge, elephants started to display symptoms associated with the human post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) observed in Kosovo and Rwanda - a disorder including abnormal-startle response, loss of emotions, depression and hyper-aggression.

Although youngsters raised by inexperienced mothers are high-risk candidates for unpredictable, asocial behaviour, at the orphanage baby elephants that had witnessed their mothers being killed woke up screaming with nightmares.

Article at the following link:
http://www.int.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=31&art_id=vn2007102...