[frogfish]

nice links

[Undefined_innocence]

Quote

@ Oracle. I'v spent about an hour looking for the little poisonous elephants too. It seems very far-fetched to me, but hey I had an hour to spare. I think the idea of dinky elephants is very appealing.
I WANT ONE!!!!

Dinky Elephants... cute...)

[Bio-Mage]

OMG !!! I got to have them all.........

[Jeenuh]

How come anytime there's some kind of rare animal people want to keep it as a pet? Haven't we ruined enough species that way? I mean come on.

[foxmulder27]

How are these poisonous pachyderms poisonous? Skin? Venom tusks (or fangs)?[attachmentid=20338]

Attached File(s)

•  image2PV.jpg (2.26K)
  Number of downloads: 169

[Odinson]

Quote

How come anytime there's some kind of rare animal people want to keep it as a pet? Haven't we ruined enough species that way? I mean come on.

IMO, we haven't ruined enough. I want a miniature water elephant!

[T.Rote]

The latest picture of Thai water elephant.

In my country somebody said that water elephant is fake. It made by Burma trader to cheat money from tourist like this one. It cost 3 million bath (Thai currency)or ~75,000 dollar! But somebody said water elephant is real. They has seen it swim in the river or even caught it and feed it like a pet, but it will die in 1-2 week later.


By the way. I took this pic from Thairath news. This article write in Thai language. If I have more time I will translate this article into english.

This post has been edited by ThaiMysteries: 10 November 2005 - 06:12 PM

[Drwhomo]

In regards to the Thai water elephant, I think I might be able to help out. I travel quite a bit and am a collector of sideshow gaffs.

The tradition of the Thai Water Elephants goes back to the 1800s. It died out after the turn of that century but for whatever reason seems to have bubbled back into existance.

The myth goes that deep in the low land water ways (or high in the mountainous rivers) there exist packs of tiny elephants that spend their entire life paddling in the water. They are no more than three to four inches tall, and are said to be legendary for their poisonous tusks, which are said to still be filled with enough venom to kill a man even long after the little animals death. Only experienced hunters are able to sneak up on the mini-elephants in the wild, as only their trunks are visible poking above the waters surface. Unwarry travelers that happen across the paths of these mini-beasts usually die, therefore no one who stumbles across them lives to tell the tail. Additionally, the little elephants are notoriously hard to maintain in captivity and usually die within a few hours or days. From time to time the tiny mummified remains of these creatures surface in markets and obscure shops.

The truth behind the myth is that these curious little mummys are sold to tourists by clever taxidermists. They are in fact, a regional mouse whos little corpse has been quickly and ingeniusly altered after its death to give the appearence of an elephant. The front legs are deboned at the knee and two of the larger bones from these areas are then sharpened and fashioned as tusks. The poisonous little dumbos are then dried and sold as curiousities by Burma traders and hoaxsters.

I have one. He is proudly displayed in my cabinet of curiousities between my Jenny Hanover, and a rather moth-eaten FeeJee Mermaid.

Hope this helps (sorry if I ruined the sense of wonder for anyone)

DrWhomo

This post has been edited by Drwhomo: 27 November 2005 - 06:47 AM

[tarabull]

Quote

Yes i agree DS, either tell us more god 18 or pass around whatever it is thats making you print this story.

yo - neen > THAT is the richest thing I've read on here in weeks LOL YES please do pass it around - me first!

And for the record I've tried to research the topic of Thai Water Elephants but dude (AKA God18) there ain't nothing out there....perhaps you are...lol - just kidding BUT seriously.

This post has been edited by tarabull: 27 November 2005 - 06:57 AM

[BigDaddy_GFS]

How do we know these aren't actually sinister mouse shapeshifters, disguising themselves as trinkets to be sold to unsuspecting tourists???

[Drwhomo]

Quote

How do we know these aren't actually sinister mouse shapeshifters, disguising themselves as trinkets to be sold to unsuspecting tourists???

I just got sent this link. I figured that others that posted here might want to see it too. Some of the description looks familar.

Anyway, I thought it was neat...

http://cgi.ebay.com/...=ADME:B:EF:US:1

[thecreeper]

Quote

How do we know these aren't actually sinister mouse shapeshifters, disguising themselves as trinkets to be sold to unsuspecting tourists???

um, okay

[Jedi_Master]

Howdy folks...

I could be an elephant Shrew, with the tusks added later...



More pics...

http://www.calacadem...otographic.html

[frogfish]

Jedi Master is correct. Shrews are posionous mammals that inhabit river and stream ecosystems (especially the water shrew).

[thecreeper]

Quote

Jedi Master is correct. Shrews are posionous mammals that inhabit river and stream ecosystems (especially the water shrew).

since when are shrews posionous. toxic maybe, posionous no