Pachyderms Gone Postal?

In the New York Times Magazine, Charles Siebert reports on an observed increase in erratic and perversely aggressive behavior among wild elephants. Siebert points to the work of Gay Bradshaw, a psychologist at the environmental-sciences program at Oregon State University, who thinks the animals have come unhinged as a result of a kind of species-wide trauma perhaps due to decades of habitat loss and poaching.

It has long been apparent that every large, land-based animal on this planet is ultimately fighting a losing battle with humankind. And yet entirely befitting of an animal with such a highly developed sensibility, a deep-rooted sense of family and, yes, such a good long-term memory, the elephant is not going out quietly.