We’ve all read the story of the Pied Piper. What he did was truly magical. If you remember the story, there was this town that had a very big rat problem. They had tried everything to get rid of the rats. Everything had been unsuccessful. One day, a piper walks into the town and learns about the story. He tells the people he can rid them of the rats for a price.
The people in the town agree and the piper marches out of the town with all the rats. There are some theories behind this fairytale that relate to science. Have you seen the videos of people playing the flute with a cobra dancing in front of them? It’s not that animals have this artistic ear for music. Some of them respond to sound, while others due to vibrations. What science tells us is that these snakes respond to vibrations produced by the sound. Because of the way their anatomy works, cobras have sensors in all their body.
They can detect vibrations from a distance. This scientific fact is what helps them hunt at any time of day.
This next video has a bit of both. It takes place in an animal Park in Thailand. The star of the show is surprisingly not the animal, but the caretaker. At the start of the video you can see the caretaker swatting the elephants she takes care of.
To many people, this might raise at least a couple of red flags. Thanks to the Internet, people have started to become more aware of animal rights. The average person will consider any aggressive behavior toward an animal completely unacceptable. The funny thing is, the elephant doesn’t seem to mind. The elephants are not trying to get away from her. On the contrary, they seem quite comfortable with her by their side. What could be motivating this caretaker to do that?
After a few swats, the elephant starts to take his place on the ground. One by one they start to lie down. Some people suggest that she was casting some sort of spell on them. And the elephants are merely responding to this. She continues with her daily ritual and then does something none of us could anticipate. She starts singing the animals to sleep.
That’s right! She’s singing lullabies to the elephants and they seem to love it. The animal’s reaction is touching. There is obviously a very strong bond and an elevated level of trust between them. Think about the Pied Piper but in large-scale. You don’t want to miss this one!
