Don't Tell Me Your Dog Is Smart, Can Your Dog Do This?

This is just absolutely amazing. Suda the amazing elephant! Just to see this for myself is worth taking a trip to India.

Elephants are well known for their intelligence. They are on a whole different level compare to the dogs and cats. Usually scientists group them with dolphins, chimpanzees, in term of "smart" animals. Then again, they aren't typical "pets" you can keep.

In India, they are mostly used as hard labor. Haven't you seen those videos where tourists in India ride on the top of elephants? Other than that, they are used to carry wood, or working in the circus. Not your typical "pets".

I think that's pretty amazing! Elephants are a lot smarter than most people think. A lot of people (or people that I know, at least) think of elephants as big, dumb creatures who are afraid of mice and spend all their days getting fat by eating peanuts. But they're actually quite intelligent! They can be trained to do a lot of things, and are used a lot, as Ram mentioned, in labor. I wish that more people knew how smart elephants were. They aren't my favorite animal or anything, but I do like them and think that they should be able to get the recognition that they deserve!

Well, isn't comparing a dog to an elephant like comparing an apple to an orange. There is no doubt that elephants are very smart animals. They seem to be easily trained, and can be very obedient creatures. That doesn't discount dogs though, after all dogs have their own level of intelligence as well and are also very loyal to those they love.

I agree--that is amazing! I have always know that elephant are deemed the most inelligent creature on Earth but I have never seen an elephant execute anything as remarkable as this. This was a joy to watch and I definitely passed this video on to family and friends. The elephant looked so cute drawing that picture. I could tell that he was concentrating hard, he was very still- so adorable. I would have loved to have been there video taping or snapping pictures. I don't see how the speaker can stand there calmy while the elephant is inches away from her. I would be terrified to be around them because they are huge. I always worry about animals turning on their trainer or the person that stands before them.

To answer the question, I don't know, I never gave my dog a paintbrush. I did have a dog that was not afraid to climb trees and often went high up into live oak trees in Florida, chasing squirrels. He never fell out which amazed me. He was a border collie mix.
Elephants are know for being very smart and the fact this one paints is a wonderous thing to see. We often hear about creatures doing things that are not normal in their natural state, but they become quite adapted to doing tricks in captivity.

This is great! I wonder if this elephant realizes that it is drawing its own species. I also wonder how long they taught the elephant before it memorized the strokes. It would be great if the elephant could draw other things. There is another easel, I wonder if the other elephants can paint too. Elephants are really intelligent and they are capable of doing things such as this. I just hope he wasn't hurt in any way when he made mistakes. Sometimes people hurt animals when they teach them (like the punishment and reward system that circuses usually have). I personally believe that elephants should be taken care of really well. Many elephants live in bad conditions in zoos.

I think that this is very impressive . I have seen pictures of cats with paintbrushes before, but the cat painting didn't resemble anything. They were just blotches of colored paint smeared on the drawing paper. Even that is pretty impressive, and amazing that an animal would enjoy painting. The cats did a kind of finger painting, or maybe "paw-painting " is a better term for it, and it was on a paper taped to the wall, so they just got the paint on their paw and swiped it around.

The elephant, however, really looks like she is deliberate in her movements, and surprisingly accurate. She has a great sense of size, and drew the picture in a perfect size for the easel that she was using.
All in all, I think it is pretty impressive, but even if my dog can't paint like the elephant, I still love him the most !

Hmmm, technically I can see how you could train an animal without intelligence to do something like this, as long as it's coordination and eyesight were good enough.

But it is true that elephants are among a small number of animals that are believed to have self-awareness (which is related to, but technically not the same as, intelligence), along with great apes, bottlenose dolphins, and so this doesn't surprise me all that much.

Now whether the elephant knows what it is drawing is something else entirely, most animals don't see the same way we do, elephants have poor eyesight and a huge blind spot, and representational art is tricky to start out with.

Well, my dog is smart enough to bark when a stranger shows up at our home and to protect the kids. That's good enough for me.

The truth is that all animals are born with certain gifts which can be brought out if they are put in the right environment. It does not matter which ones are the smartest. The beauty is in seeing them do things that truly amaze us.

What impresses me the most about Suda is the discipline that he shows while painting. Notice how the speed of the brush never changes and remains steady. When the gentleman reaches for the brush, Suda dutifully lets him have it. After he has dipped it into the paint, Suda takes it back from him and continues. One can tell that they are communicating without using words.

Elephants have always been able to do amazing things with their trunks. It seems to me as though Suda is simply taking it to another level.

Thank you for this very nice clip.