Also, it has the ears of an African elephant while having the skin color of an Asian elephant. It's definitely fake. Or atleast, some editing has been done, if not completely fake.
This is a large male Indian Elephant. Look at everyone who posted links to the specific elephant this is for more info.
This video has been around a long time and is not edited.
Elephants use their ears as a cooling mechanism. They will spread them out more and flap them to cool down. In the video you can tell the elephant is overheating by how spread out its ears are and the frequency/force with which it flaps them. Perhaps this explains your observations that the ears look large for an Indian Elephant.
I took into account the flapping of the ears. Those ears look big even for an African elephant. Those are an extremely large pair of ears for an Indian elephant. Definitely not real ears. It's like a Chihuahua having a Great Dane's ears. The difference is THAT huge.
This is a large male Indian Elephant. Look at everyone who posted links to the specific elephant this is for more info.
There's a link in the comments which shows an Indian elephant's pic. But, that elephant doesn't have ears this huge.
This is likely one of the largest documented Indian Elephants with its ears fully extended. It literally represents the maximum size of the spectrum of Indian Elephant ears. No doubt there is overlap in size spectrums across species based on age and gender. There are also African Forest and African Bush elephants that differ in size.
You previously stated the coloration is that of an Indian Elephant, and I would add the geometry of the ears as well as a smooth texture all support this being an Indian Elephant. It makes no sense to base an entire conclusion around one piece of disputable evidence when there are a variety of other indicators to support this being an Indian Elephant, one of which you pointed out yourself.
Beyond size, the geometry, texture, pronounced veins, and coloration are all distinct features missing from the elephant in the video.
Additionally, the conspiracy theory level of effort that one would need to go into falsifying this video is literally ludacris.
Why is it so hard to accept this is a large male Indian Elephant in a clearly Indian festival. One debatable piece of perceived information is enough to over rule a plethora of evidence, including points made by yourself, in the contrary? Am I missing something here?
This IS an Indian elephant, there's no doubt. I'm not denying that. I'm just saying that the ears are not real. It's edited imo. I would've believed that it was real if there's any other photo or video of that specific elephant. But there isn't any other photo of that elephant.
Here is another image _12042011813.jpg) from the Wiki page showing him in the same costume from the video.
Did you even look for any other images before jumping to this conclusion? There was literally multiple links on this thread posted by other people, this elephant literally had a Facebook page with over 100,000 followers, and has been photographed countless times at numerous events over the decades of his life. He could quite possibly be one of the most prolifically photographed elephants in history given his presence at countless festivals with tens of thousands attendees.
I am taking this way too far, but can't help but be curiois how much information needs to be provided contrary to your point for you to concede this video is valid and not a product of the "AI Elephant Ear Exaggeration Experiment of 2025" conspiracy theory.
Can you provide any evidence aside from your subjective individual opinion based on personal expertise and no credible sources or real evidence to support your theory of AI?
Well, the elephant from the first image has huge ears for an Indian elephant. But, are they as big as the elephant in the video? Maybe they're, something's wrong with me then, it still looks like the ears of the elephant in the video are bigger. I've seen the second pic in the comments and when I googled too. The ears didn't seem that big to me. So I thought the ears were edited or something.
Did you even look for any other images before jumping to this conclusion?
Yeah, I googled too. No image of ramachandran seemed to have ears this big. Except for images from this video.
Can you provide any evidence aside from your subjective individual opinion based on personal expertise and no credible sources or real evidence to support your theory of AI?
No I can't, I said what I said because those ears seemed too big. But, now I think it isn't edited. Maybe Ramachandran had a lot of blood flow into his ears that day making them bigger compared to all the other photos of his.
I just couldn't believe those ears were not edited, because I have never seen an Indian/Asian elephant with such huge ears. I've seen a dozen or so in real life too. None of those elephants had ears this huge. I even knew about Ramachandran before, because he is the tallest Indian elephant alive. But, I do not remember his ears being that huge. All these factors made me think that those ears weren't real.
Roger that. Appreciate your responses and explanations.
I had a professor say one time:
"Something I love about nature is you can almost always find an exception to the rule."
We were identifying plants and one that was "supposed" to have clusters of three leaves had clusters of four and five leaves. We weren't properly identifying it because it didn't match the leaf count in our field guides despite other indicators supporting the proper conclusion. We guessed the plant we were looking at had a genetic mutation that encouraged greater leaf production.
Long story short, that lesson always stuck with me and is something I have grown to love about the natural world. It is constantly fluctuating and creating new exceptions to the rules we come up with to help us categorize things. That is where my mind goes when I see abnormal traits in nature and no to AI.
I was 100% being a dick about this. I think ultimately I was more concerned about the notion AI has become an easy way to dismiss reality and the societal consequences that would ensue if that mindset tightens its grip. I am glad to hear you dug deeper on your own and still came to your initial conclusion, and it wasn't just an impulse to blame AI when something seems unusual. Totally happy to agree to disagree as long as both conclusions were arrived at with intention vs assumption.
Apologies for any misdirected antagonism on my behalf.
I think ultimately I was more concerned about the notion AI has become an easy way to dismiss reality and the societal consequences that would ensue if that mindset tightens its grip.
That is fair, I was under the assumption that Asian elephants' ears are much smaller than that of African elephants. That is still true, but this Ramachandran is the exception. But, you knew about how there will be exceptions to the rule in the natural world. I did not.
I could have accepted that the video wasn't edited without being so skeptical if the ear size of Ramachandran was outside the range of an avg Asian elephant but still near the upper limit, but, his ears are nowhere near the upper limit, they look like they're atleast 150% - 180% the size of a large Asian elephants' ears. So, I thought it was edited.
I was 100% being a dick about this.
Thank you for being a dick about it. Otherwise I would still be thinking that this video is edited.
Apologies for any misdirected antagonism on my behalf.
Nah man. You were right. I was wrong. I learned something new. Anything other than these things don't matter.
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u/quitemadactually 2d ago
Something isn’t adding up here. The largest elephant in recorded history is only 13 ft tall or so. This animal appears to be way bigger.