Oh man, this post is really sad and I don't want to make fun of it... But your comment made me think of a joke.
What's big, gray and doesn't matter?
An irrelephant.
Okay, so, just to clarify: they have no idea if the elephant was "crying" as humans understand it, since there's been no evidence elephants produce tears as an emotional reaction. It's quite possible the eyes were just watering due to being nearly trampled to death. That said, it's pretty much impossible to say the baby elephant (named Zhuang Zhuang) was not upset. They are emotional creatures and social creatures.
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They're not sure why the mother turned on him, though it's not the first time a mother elephant has done so.
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One of the keepers "adopted him" three days after the incident.
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https://images.theweek.com/sites/default/files/legacygeneric/HappyElephant.jpg
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Additionally there is a Facebook page for him, although you have to sign in to view it it seems:
https://www.facebook.com/zhuangelephant/?fref=ts
The only reason its not a confirmed fact that elephants cry as an emotional response is because we can't actually measure emotions. There are however extreme amounts of evidence to support the idea. There has been more than one occurrence of elephants crying at the death of a family member as well as more than one elephant crying when it was freed from capture.
I've always loved elephants, they're very intelligent. We already know they grieve for their loss by caressing and gently holding the bones of the dead elephant. We know their memory is amazing because as the herds migrate the eldest elephants have to teach the younger ones the paths to water holes or to the best feeding grounds, without this passing of knowledge through generations they wouldn't survive. They're capable of complex emotions and it never ceases to confuse me when people think just because they're an animal (just like humans are mind you) that they can't feel.
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· 5 years ago
Not to mention as well, they are fantastic artists.
What's big, gray and doesn't matter?
An irrelephant.
'
They're not sure why the mother turned on him, though it's not the first time a mother elephant has done so.
'
One of the keepers "adopted him" three days after the incident.
'
https://images.theweek.com/sites/default/files/legacygeneric/HappyElephant.jpg
'
Additionally there is a Facebook page for him, although you have to sign in to view it it seems:
https://www.facebook.com/zhuangelephant/?fref=ts
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/article/animal-grief/