# Elephant painting?! **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 21, 2009, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/elephant-painting/486871 "2009-02-21T17:57:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![anthonyjaycorman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dbc845/32.png) [@anthonyjaycorman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/anthonyjaycorman)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2009, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/elephant-painting/486871/1 "2009-02-21T17:57:29Z")
Check out [http://fun.mivzakon.co.il/flash/video/2344/2344.html](http://fun.mivzakon.co.il/flash/video/2344/2344.html) ``` I know elephants are brilliant, and I'm a big fan, but can they in fact paint realistically? If this video is fake, it's not really obvious, though there aren't many whole-elephant shots. Perhaps the big guy was trained to do this one painting? ``` ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2009, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/elephant-painting/486871/2 "2009-02-21T18:12:13Z")
Snopes says it’s [true](http://www.snopes.com/photos/animals/elephantpainting.asp). However, the elephant is simply painting what it was taught to paint- it’s equivalent to the elephant being trained to perform a choreographed dance. The picture does not reflect the elephant’s stylized image of itself, or anything like that; it could just as easily have been taught to paint a house or car or Queen Elizabeth II. ---
**Author:** ![Cagey\_Drifter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b2d939/32.png) [@Cagey\_Drifter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cagey_Drifter)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2009, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/elephant-painting/486871/3 "2009-02-21T20:00:37Z")
I’ve seen elephants doing it in Thailand once. It was clear to me that they were trained to paint specific things. I don’t think they had the cognitive ability to understand that what they were painting was supposed to be symbolically representative of anything corporeal. ---
**Author:** ![ivan\_astikov](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/58f4c7/32.png) [@ivan\_astikov](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivan_astikov)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2009, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/elephant-painting/486871/4 "2009-02-21T21:25:16Z")
I’ve just read an article on this in a daily paper. Desmond Morris went over there to check it out and found out that the 3 elephants that do these paintings, all do the same painting, over and over. Each elephant is controlled by a trainer, who as well as passing the elephant its different brushes, is also making discreet tugs on the elephant’s ear to control the brush stroke direction. This doesn’t take away from the fact that an animal that could just toss aside its trainer with a wave of its trunk, seems quite content to be painting for peanuts. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2009, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/elephant-painting/486871/5 "2009-02-21T21:41:14Z")
I watched an elephant do this about a year and a half ago. Her painting was more abstract, by which I mean it was a series of lines in different colors. I believe she chose the colors herself and the result was not as guided by the caregiver as the elephant in **ivan astikov** ’s example. She was rewarded frequently with fruit, though. Looked like a pretty sweet gig. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2009, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/elephant-painting/486871/6 "2009-02-21T22:53:02Z")
> [@ivan\_astikov](#): > > Desmond Morris I saw the [article](http://news-mail.blogspot.com/2009/02/can-jumbo-elephants-really-paint.html) in Elephant News today. Thanks, Ivan. ---
**Author:** ![ivan\_astikov](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/58f4c7/32.png) [@ivan\_astikov](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivan_astikov)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2009, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/elephant-painting/486871/7 "2009-02-21T23:00:04Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > I saw the [article](http://news-mail.blogspot.com/2009/02/can-jumbo-elephants-really-paint.html) in Elephant News today. > > Thanks, Ivan. Likewise for the link. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2009, 4:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/elephant-painting/486871/8 "2009-02-22T04:01:16Z")
Yes, it’s true, although I’ve not seen it done. I have no idea how they train them to do that, but occasionally you’ll read about elephant works for sale, with the money going to charity, usually for elephant welfare. (I mean, I know they can be trained to perform one or a few similar strokes, but some elephants seem to be more creative than others.) There are also elephant orchestras, with the beasts playing instruments. CDs have been issued.