Human Equivalent of Elephant Age in Captivity

This is a preview of a chapter in my next book "Elephant Talks" which will be out soon.

Human Equivalent of Elephant Age in Captivity

I sometime get some bizarre ideas.
This is one of them.
I wonder if we equate the age of an elephant to human age where does it stand.
It is not an easy answer since we do not have vocal language parameter to go by.
They certainly can understand our language but but they cannot talk back.
We have to derive some other ploy.
Before I delve into that I will try to age a dog in human terms.
Then, I will use that age to judge the elephant.
The question is who is smarter.
The dog or the elephant?
    We are very close to the canines, it is relatively easy to age a dog in human terms.

Aging a dog in human terms

Below is the relevant information posted in one of my blogposts about chronological age of a dog in relation to human age.

Old Dog Haven and Senior Dogs

There are lot of myths about dogs but here I want to illustrate few human facts that I should communicate with Maha Brahma who was a yesteryear dog exterminated to make room for Perahara Pilgrims that visit the holy city of Kandy. Most of Sri-Lankan end up in hell whereas the Maha Brahma's dog and present assistant of Maha Brahma were dogs from this country.
By clever design they ended up there and for my luck I happen to know the Present Maha Brahma’s Assistant as a Paraya dog in Kandy and I am fortunate enough to communicate with him by virtual email.
First the bad news.
Lot of paraya dogs were cleared up recently in preparation for Perehara and I want a place reserved for them in hell (for the municipality exterminators not the exterminated paraya dogs).
In some countries when they are old they are sent to Old Dogs Haven.
I want the Maha to take them to heaven moment they are exterminated but make a short list of the exterminators and send that list to Apaya (Hell) Server.
I have designed a full proof program to catch dog killers and that is working nicely in Apaya Server currently but the problem is these dog killers live longer  than the dog by many a mile due to cardiac surgery performed.

Senior Citizens                                              Senior Dogs

1. They have homes for the elderly       1. Haven is practically hell for the dogs
2. Some senior citizens by that time     2. There is only extermination decree    become mayors of the holy city
3.They never give way to juniors          3.Junior dogs take charge of the brood

I have another plea.
 
If one wants to age with the dog please do the following.
1. Take care of a young dog at the age of 43 (when nobody seems to want you including your wife and the kids) years.

2. When you are 50 your dog is 7 years old and equal to 50 years of human age.


3. In another three (3) years when your dog is 10 he is equivalent to 60 human years and you will be 53 years.
You are younger by 7 years.

4. In another two years dog (at 12 years) will be 70 and you will be only 55 years.

You are younger by 15 years.

43=0

50=7=50 ( only at 50 one can be at the level of the dog age and enjoy with your contemporary to your heart's content and his company prevents you from getting a heart attack, if you delay the dog will get a heart attack).

53=10=60

55=12=70 (This is the time you get a bypass operation and  the dog gets a heart attack).

5. Now that you have become the mayor at 55 after retiring from service would you be kind to this dog  who is 70 years human equivalent (12 years  of our time) or sent for the Municipality Exterminator.

6. They are just old senior dogs / citizens they do not have a parliament to go but only the streets but unlike you they look after our streets even at night when young, is it reasonable to put them to death.

7. How come if I say all the senior citizens who were ex-parliamentarians and drawing a fat pension and to save money for development they should be exterminated.
 
Will you pass a bill and vote yes  in parliament?
 
Are we reasonable human beings?
 
What I am referring here is not the chronological age but the mental age which is different from the age in years in children’s growth.

It is easy to assess the mental age of a dog unlike an elephant since they live close to us and adopt to our way of life easily.
 
But there is big variation while I believe depends on the pedigree and their upbringing.

Paraya dogs seem to get arrested at mental age of three (3) of human equivalent if they leave the care giver early and were neglected in there upbringing.
That I call the streetwise age which is quite adequate for their survival.
They live in fear and insecurity which a child will inherit if he/she is abandoned by parents and live in a children’s home.
The fear and insecurity give them all essential survival skills.
If the dog is a pedigree dog depending on the type and upbringing the mental age of human equivalent may go up to five.
My dog ranks about seven and he is clever enough to twist my arm t every opportunity without arousing my suspicion and anger.
He is a clever manipulator of the skills of seven year old child.
He always beats me and is very smart.
Enough of dogs this book is about elephants and how we age an elephant in human mental age?
That is a difficult task.
Elephants are with us not by their choice but due to human manipulations.
They are prisoners without a choice.
In this context their mental age is arrested to suit to adopt and live with us.

Aging an Elephant in human terms

My gut felling is that the Elephant age is more than seven as compared to a dog.
It is more likely ten (10) than seven years of age.
I want to raise it to teens, more of 13 or 14 than 16 years of age where in humans concepts develop.
For example we human can develop few concepts call elephants in captivity concepts.

1. The elephants are created by gods for our work.

2. They should be deprived of their place in the jungle hierarchy.

3. They can be trained like dogs.

4. One should use pain as a mode of taming them.

5. They should be chained.

6. They should be used for religious activity.

7. They should be called orphans.

8. They should be a state symbol of the wealthy merchants.

9. There should not be any political freedom for them.

10. They should be governed by human laws and regulations.

11. Then develop the myth that carrying the Tooth Relic of the Maligawa is the highest order that a tusker will attain in this life.

12. In next life he/she will be invariably in heaven.

The list can go up to 100, the pain points under its pachyderm which are used by the mahout to cause pain to this gentle giant so that he/she is subservient to human denigration.
 
I listed them to show how fallacious all of them are.
 
The elephant by being a beast cannot conceptualize that captivity is wrong and I should go back to the jungle.
They become attached to the human bondage and live a life of prisoners of conscience.
That is why I put them to 13 and 14 age of mental age where our teenagers are not acquired full freedom but have to be engaged in a prolonged period of so called education at the end of it have no job security but a minimum wage band which is twice the poverty line.
 
The plight of the teenager is no different from the elephant in captivity.
Unfortunately we cannot send the elephant to higher education in the university but the teenager can aspire it.
Failing which he becomes a downcast or a terrorist.