Art and Music
Like several other species, elephants are able to produce abstract art using their trunks to hold brushes. An example of this was shown in the TV program Extraordinary Animals, in which elephants at a camp in Thailand were able to draw self-portraits with flowers. Although the images were drawn by the elephants, there was always a trainer assisting and guiding the movement.
A popular video showing an elephant painting a picture of another elephant became widespread on internet news and video websites. The website snopes.com, which specializes in debunking urban legends, lists the video as "true", in that the elephant produced the brush strokes, but notes that the similarity of the produced paintings is indicative of a learned sequence of strokes rather than a creative effort on the part of the elephant.
An elephant at the National Zoo in Washington D.C. has displayed the ability to play the harmonica and various horn instruments. She reportedly always ends her songs with a crescendo.
Read more about this topic: Elephant Cognition
Famous quotes containing the words art and, art and/or music:
“To “give style” to one’s character—a rare and noble art! Those practice it who compass all that their natures present as strengths and weaknesses and then fit them into an artistic plan until every one appears as art and reason and even weakness enchants the eye.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)
“An art whose medium is language will always show a high degree of critical creativeness, for speech is itself a critique of life: it names, it characterizes, it passes judgment, in that it creates.”
—Thomas Mann (1875–1955)
“... the majority of colored men do not yet think it worth while that women aspire to higher education.... The three R’s, a little music and a good deal of dancing, a first rate dress-maker and a bottle of magnolia balm, are quite enough generally to render charming any woman possessed of tact and the capacity for worshipping masculinity.”
—Anna Julia Cooper (1859–1964)