March 27, 2008: Ele-Vision

In the remote Pench National Park in Madhya Pradesh, India, a team filming a documentry on Tigers for the BBC, needed better pictures of the wary Tigers.

Downer said he came up with the idea three years ago when his team started filming the tigers. He noticed how gently the forest elephants carried firewood to their camp and wondered if they'd be as delicate with a camera. "And they were," he enthused. "Elephants do not see tigers as a threat, and tigers are comfortable with elephants. So we had the perfect team."

The langur monkeys in the reserve provide fascinating pictures as they became transfixed by their reflections in the log-cams. The footage also resulted in incredible close-ups of jackals, boars and birds. Such access to wildlife usually eludes visitors.

This is the camera setup...


And one of the pictures from the Ele-Vision camera.


Be sure and check out the rest of the pictures at the Daily Mail.

And for you Brits...

The three-part documentary Tiger: Spy In The Jungle begins on BBC1 on Sunday at 8pm.

oddly, there seem to be no pics of tigers . . .

They're saving them for the TV show.

tease!

Tiger elitist! I'm tellin' the Bears and Boars and Deer and Monkeys, on you. :p

xoxoxoBruce;441905 wrote:

Tiger elitist! I'm tellin' the Bears and Boars and Deer and Monkeys, on you. :p

Only the monkey's can do anything about it...they're the ones with thumbs.:D
_____________________
I wondered why the sky was getting brighter...then it dawned on me. (Sorry xoB, I've been resisting that for a while now.;))

You've obviously never pissed off a bear, boar or deer. ;)

xoxoxoBruce;441905 wrote:

Tiger elitist! I'm tellin' the Bears and Boars and Deer and Monkeys, on you. :p

rrrroooowwr!

That is so freaking cool. I'll have to keep an eye out to see if it ever airs on this side of the pond. Sweet!

Doesn't it seem strange that huffalumps don't see tigg-ers as a threat when I've seen a pack of lionesses ambush and take down a huffalump?

Brianna;442000 wrote:

Doesn't it seem strange that huffalumps don't see tigg-ers as a threat when I've seen a pack of lionesses ambush and take down a huffalump?

Plural being the important point (that'd be pride then :rolleyes: )

The wonderful thing about Tiggers is, I'm the only one

Tigers are also solitary and do not hunt in groups. (I think :o )

I think they're only scared of 6-year olds with pop guns.

Elephants do not see tigers as a threat, and tigers are comfortable with elephants.

However, Mythbusters proved elephants will do just about anything to avoid a mouse.

I'm still trying to figure out why elephants need firewood.

And, if the elephants took the pictures, why are they copyright John Downer?

HungLikeJesus;442026 wrote:

I'm still trying to figure out why elephants need firewood.~snip~

:lol2: that's a damn good question!

Also, do they have cameras in every piece of wood lying around? How could they know which logs the elephants are going to carry by the tiger?

Cloud;442005 wrote:

I think they're only scared of 6-year olds with pop guns.

That's poop guns. 6-year-olds with poop guns. Very scary indeed.

i had hoped to say "smile, you're on canine camera" but just learned that elephant tusks, unlike those of most tusked mammals, are incisor rather than canine teeth. is it ok to ignore reality for a joke - albeit a weak one?

Shawnee123;442027 wrote:

:lol2: that's a damn good question!

Also, do they have cameras in every piece of wood lying around? How could they know which logs the elephants are going to carry by the tiger?

The elephants told them which logs they were going to carry by the tigers, and which logs were going to be used for the big elephant bonfire and cookout down by the ... oops. I guess they forgot.

sweetwater;442067 wrote:

i had hoped to say "smile, you're on canine camera" but just learned that elephant tusks, unlike those of most tusked mammals, are incisor rather than canine teeth. is it ok to ignore reality for a joke - albeit a weak one?

Really? Incisor? I didn't know that. Thanks. :thumb:

I know it was funny...but really...why do elephants collect firewood? After HLJ brought it up, I noticed they said how gently elephants carry firewood back to camp, and all I could picture was another elephant opening up the graham crackers to make s'mores.

The camp, is that of the film crew.

omg...OHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH. :blush:

Yep, dementia is looming.

Hey, I've really been quite the elephant doubter today.

Don't misunderstand me. I think elephants are the bomb! :)

Shawnee123;442162 wrote:

I know it was funny...but really...why do elephants collect firewood? After HLJ brought it up, I noticed they said how gently elephants carry firewood back to camp, and all I could picture was another elephant opening up the graham crackers to make s'mores.

Then they all sit around singing Kum ba Yah.

Wait! Don't we have a user who hangs with elephants in, um, er, someplace down there? Why not ask HER?

Brian

Leah? But that was before my time.

just saw the tiger special with the elephant cams on Animal Planet. Very cool.

if humans let tigers become extinct . . . well, I don't know anything bad enough to say about that