River of Elephants

Meanwhile a herd of elephants are probably passing behind us as we play with bread between our toes. The sky begins to get dark and overcast. Up river, Mincho spots more signs of elephants—fresh tracks. From the jungle, the distant sound of trumpeting. Mincho determines the elephant is in the vicinity—20 minutes away in the midst of the thick jungle.

Then wait some more.

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This is beginning to get miserable. Team A decides to stay. Team B my squad makes an executive decision to head back up the Menangul River in the pouring jungle rain. Drenched to the bone I pull out my emergency rain poncho. Still in original packaging. Once we get to the mouth of the river, Mincho gets a text: It makes the mission more dramatic—we have to work for our elephant sightings. Our guide pushes it to the limits. The dingy bottoms several times. When you have a YouTube channel and a baby on the way, that can only mean the audience will expect a crazy gender reveal.

A Marriage Proposal Brian and Lexi have been dating for about three years now. So naturally, Brian thinks it's time to pop the big question, but not before he makes Lexi work for it a little bit. Lexi thought she was going out for a girl's day but soon learned she was going on a scavenger hunt where there was a surprise proposal waiting for her at the end. Fortunately for newlywed Kelcie, her husband Jonathan showed up with all the right gear. More Love is in the Air videos. Police dogs are just the best, and we love to thank them for the service they do for our country. Before a dog becomes a full-fledged K9, they need to go through training just like their human counterparts.

We're sure he'll grow out of it! Puppy Quinn with the Queensland Police Service is having a bit of a hard time during his training because of his cute but slightly irrational fear of stairs. From a bed made out of a warm sweater to a DIY cat window perch, there's sure to be something for every cute canine and feline in your life. But it's not like Dobrik can just call up a super famous television star and have her surprise Suzy at her own party, right?

Well, of course, you'd be wrong. In his most recent challenge, he takes on over six pounds of Whopper burgers, and beats a record while he's at it! Let's Have 16, Calories For Breakfast! Why stuff a bunch of food into your face at Thanksgiving with your family when you can have a pre-feast by yourself as well?

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Maybe there is such a thing as too much food? Burmese forces used war elephants to oppose British forces until the First Anglo-Burmese War March—April battle of Danubyu , where they were stopped by Congreve rocket fire. The Siamese Army continued utilising war elephants armed with jingals up until the Franco-Siamese War of , while the Vietnamese used them in battle as late as , during the Sino-French War. Into the 20th century, military elephants were used for non-combat purposes as late as World War II , [66] particularly because the animals could perform tasks in regions that were problematic for motor vehicles.

Without them our retreat from Burma would have been even more arduous and our advance to its liberation slower and more difficult. Elephants are now more valuable to many armies in failing states for their ivory than as transport, and many thousands of elephants have died during civil conflicts due to poaching. They are classed as a pack animal in a U. Special Forces field manual issued as recently as , but their use by US personnel is discouraged because elephants are endangered. There were many military purposes for which elephants could be used.

In battle, war elephants were usually deployed in the centre of the line, where they could be useful to prevent a charge or to conduct one of their own. Their sheer size and their terrifying appearance made them valued heavy cavalry. Such a charge was based on pure force: Those men who were not crushed were at least knocked aside or forced back. Moreover, elephants could inspire terror in an enemy unused to fighting them — even the very disciplined Romans — and could cause the enemy to break and flee.

Horses unaccustomed to the smell of elephants also panicked easily. The elephants' thick hide gave them considerable protection, [ dubious — discuss ] while their height and mass protected their riders. Some elephants were even equipped with their own armor to further protect them. Many generals preferred to base themselves atop elephants so as to get a better view of the battlefield. In addition to charging, the elephants could provide a safe and stable platform for archers to shoot arrows in the middle of the battlefield, from which more targets could be seen and engaged.

The archery evolved into more advanced weapons, and several Khmer and Indian kings used giant crossbow platforms similar to the ballista to shoot long armor-piercing shafts to kill other enemy war elephants and cavalry. The late 16th century AD also saw the use of culverin and jingals on elephants, an adaptation to the gunpowder age that ultimately drove elephants from the battlefield. Elephants were further enhanced with their own weaponry and armour.

In India and Sri Lanka , heavy iron chains with steel balls at the end were tied to the trunks of war elephants, which the animals were trained to swirl menacingly and with great skill.

Numerous cultures designed elephant armour , aiming to protect the body and legs of the animal while leaving his trunk free to attack the enemy. Tusk swords were sometimes employed. Larger animals could also carry a protective tower on their backs, called a howdah. Further east, large numbers of men were carried, with the senior commander either utilising the howdah or leading from his seat on the elephant's neck. The driver, called a mahout , was responsible for controlling the animal.

In many armies, the mahout also carried a chisel -blade and a hammer or sometimes poisoned weapons [19] to cut through the spinal cord and kill the animal if the elephant went berserk. War elephants had tactical weaknesses, however, that enemy forces often learnt to exploit. Elephants had a tendency to panic themselves: Their panicked retreat could inflict heavy losses on either side. Experienced Roman infantry often tried to sever their trunks, causing an instant panic, and hopefully causing the elephant to flee back into its own lines.

Fast skirmishers armed with javelins were also used to drive them away, as javelins and similar weapons could madden an elephant. Elephants were often unarmoured and vulnerable to blows to their flanks, so Roman infantry armed with some sort of flaming object or with a stout line of pikes, such as Triarii , would often attempt to make the elephant turn to expose its flank to the infantry, making the elephant susceptible to a pike thrust or a skirmisher's javelin.

Elephants help calf cross river

The cavalry sport of tent pegging grew out of training regimes for horsemen to incapacitate or turn back war elephants. Ancient writers believed that "elephants are scared by the smallest squeal of a pig", [73] and the vulnerability was exploited. At the Megara siege during the Diadochi wars , for example, the Megarians reportedly poured oil on a herd of pigs, set them alight, and drove them towards the enemy's massed war elephants. The elephants bolted in terror from the flaming squealing pigs.

The value of war elephants in battle remains a contested issue.

VIDEO: Huge Herd of Elephants crossing the river

In the 19th century, it was fashionable to contrast the western, Roman focus on infantry and discipline with the eastern, exotic use of war elephants that relied merely on fear to defeat their enemy. The use of war elephants over the centuries has left a deep cultural legacy in many countries. Many traditional war games incorporate war elephants. Chaturanga , the ancient Indian board game from which modern chess has gradually developed, calls its bishop Gaja , meaning elephant in Sanskrit; it is still called an elephant in Chinese chess.

In Bengali , the bishop is called hati , Bengali for "elephant". In the Japanese game shogi , there used to be a piece known as the "Drunken Elephant"; it was, however, dropped by order of the Emperor Go-Nara and no longer appears in the version played in contemporary Japan.

Elephant armour, originally designed for use in war, is today usually only seen in museums.

• Elephants rescue calf washed away in river.
• the river with Elephants - Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage.
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One particularly fine set of Indian elephant armour is preserved at the Leeds Royal Armouries Museum , while Indian museums across the sub-continent display other fine pieces. The architecture of India also shows the deep impact of elephant warfare over the years. War elephants adorn many military gateways, such as those at Lohagarh Fort for example, while some spiked, anti-elephant gates still remain, for example at Kumbhalgarh fort. Across India, older gateways are invariably much higher than their European equivalents, in order to allow elephants with howdahs to pass through underneath.

War elephants also remain a popular artistic trope, either in the Orientalist painting tradition of the 19th century, or in literature following Tolkien , who popularised a fantastic rendition of war elephants in the form of oliphaunts. The videogame Celtic Kings: The Punic Wars includes units like the war elephant, [77] which they owe to the Carthaginians. Origins , they are distributed around the map as boss fights.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. This article is about elephants trained for combat. For the album by Deer Tick, see War Elephant album. This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources.

Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. September Learn how and when to remove this template message. Conjectural reconstruction of the main gate of Kusinagara used by war elephants circa BCE adapted from a relief at Sanchi. Elephants in use by Indian cavalry. The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia: Absolute Elephant Information Encyclopedia.

The Ancient South Asian World. With Special Reference to the Vedic Period. Economic History of Orissa. From Alexander the Great to Kargil. Literally translated, with a commentary, from the Greek of Arrian, the Nicomedian". The Life of Alexander the Great. Archived from the original on May 17, Check date values in: University of Nebraska Press. Retrieved — via Books. Retrieved 14 March Quite the contrary, the use of maddened and guideless animal missiles indicates that the Chinese then had not yet mastered the complex skills necessary for training and guiding elephants into combat.

Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School. Archived from the original on