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[G-Flex]

That, and the fact that the animal is so large just means that it's going to need a hell of a lot of food as well.

[Christes]

Food which could be used to feed people?

heh.  The wonders of meat.

[Mipe]

Argh, not this again. Let me stress this: meat is not wasteful! Even if they require a LOT of food, that amount is scattered across a long time frame. All that energy is then concentrated within meat, which can instantly be consumed for a boost. Elephants are walking solar-powered batteries.

Also, fertilizer. Boosts the vegetation greatly.

EVERYTHING has a place in the Nature.

[G-Flex]

Argh, not this again. Let me stress this: meat is not wasteful! Even if they require a LOT of food, that amount is scattered across a long time frame. All that energy is then concentrated within meat

I have to stop you right there.

The vast majority of energy that goes into an animal simply is not stored within the animal for later use.

Picture your own metabolism: A person will, while maintaining stable weight, eat something like 2000 Calories of energy per day. This energy is simply not stored within the person, unless he IS gaining weight, in which case, it's probably only a few Calories per day gained in storage.

Think about this for a second: A human, maintaining his weight, uses something like 730,000 Calories per year of energy that is simply not stored.

There are exceptions, of course; if the animal is actively growing, then more of that energy gets stored, but then again, it's also probably eating more.


So really, an elephant is like a walking solar battery, except it's a battery that builds up X joules of stored energy, but while eating up Y joules of energy constantly that gets wasted. The vast, vast majority of the energy just goes into the creature's actual metabolism, from it moving around, digesting food, thinking, breathing, eating, organ function, and doing everything else an animal has to do.

[Reese]

If only Africa created an elephant breeding and slaughter industry.

 Actually, that doesn't sound like a bad idea...

 Gimmie a million dollars to start it up and I'll pay you back in 20 years plus interest.

Except, you know, elephants are kinda endangered species thanks to poachers, who rob them of ivory and leave 'em rotting. It is sad when ivory is worth more than all the meat an elephant produces.

... if elephant meat took off as an actual food source, they wouldn't be endangered for long... just look at cows

the problem would be that elephants take a very long time to grow up... wikipedia has it that a female elephant needs to be 13 years old before she can breed and have a 22 month pregnancy... compared to a cow's 3(?) years to breeding age and 9 month gestation...

also:

Elephant rage
Despite its popularity in zoos, and cuddly portrayal as gentle giants in fiction, elephants are among the world's most dangerous animals. They can crush and kill any other land animal, even the rhinoceros. They can experience unexpected bouts of rage, and can be vindictive.[70] In Africa, groups of young teenage elephants attack human villages in what is thought to be revenge for the destruction of their society by massive cullings done in the 1970s and 80s.[71][72] In India, male elephants attack villages at night, destroying homes and killing people regularly. In the Indian state of Jharkhand, 300 people were killed by elephants between 2000 and 2004, and in Assam, 239 people have been killed by elephants since 2001.[70]

[Nivim]

 On the subject of calories and energy consumption; about a third of a human's energy every day goes into pumping Ca²⁺ and K⁺ to keep up the charge gradient along the plasma membranes. Both ions are constantly pushing back through the barrier, and must be pumped back in/out. All reactions in the body require this charge gradient, and failing to pump the ions equals death. I don't know how much energy elephants need for this, but I guess it's going to be the same amount of energy per surface area of membrane.

[alfie275]

I saw this quite clever sceme, they would cut the tusks off elephants which they auctioned to raise funds for the reserve, it also means that the poatchers have no reason to hunt them. I'm not sure if this hurts the elephant, I suppose you could cut off one of the tusks since elephants are right or left tusked like how humans are left or right handed.

[Sean Mirrsen]

Heh. I suppose if the elephants are to be kept both alive, not poached, and with tusks at the same time, they would have to learn multitusking...

[Muz]

I want DF to be finished by Christmas, so I could get it as a Christmas present, but we all know how games tend to suck when they're rushed for Christmas

[Askot Bokbondeler]

Heh. I suppose if the elephants are to be kept both alive, not poached, and with tusks at the same time, they would have to learn multitusking...

LOL

[Neonivek]

So it is starting to sound like Elephants are more expencive to raise for meat then they are worth.

One limit later could be carrying limits. Elephants are HUGE your not going to mass transport their bodies.

[Shoku]

Argh, not this again. Let me stress this: meat is not wasteful! Even if they require a LOT of food, that amount is scattered across a long time frame. All that energy is then concentrated within meat, which can instantly be consumed for a boost. Elephants are walking solar-powered batteries.

Also, fertilizer. Boosts the vegetation greatly.

EVERYTHING has a place in the Nature.

Energetics-wise you get the best return on an animal that grows quickly meaning that we'd get the most meat per plants from raising something like rabbits.
But as you mentioned fertilizing the ground has it's benefits so there are some tricks for going way past that. If you have cows clearcut an enclosed area of grass and poop everywhere that's not very useful in and of itself but because flies lay maggots in that poop you can wait three days (biggest maggots,) and release a bunch of chickens into the area to eat those. Chicken poo does a lot more for the ground as it's nitrogen rich and the chickens spread out the cow crap as well so now you've got pretty good fertilizer all over the place and your grass should be able to grow back quickly. There are a few systems you can work out like this.

Chemical agriculture and factory farming still have more raw output but if you don't have all of the advanced materials that those require a system like above is still good for a whole lot more food than you should be able to normally raise from the land.

On the subject of calories and energy consumption; about a third of a human's energy every day goes into pumping Ca²⁺ and K⁺ to keep up the charge gradient along the plasma membranes. Both ions are constantly pushing back through the barrier, and must be pumped back in/out. All reactions in the body require this charge gradient, and failing to pump the ions equals death. I don't know how much energy elephants need for this, but I guess it's going to be the same amount of energy per surface area of membrane.

I don't think the average layman is going to recognize that that is in regards to nerve cells without you at least using the word neuron.

So it is starting to sound like Elephants are more expencive to raise for meat then they are worth.

One limit later could be carrying limits. Elephants are HUGE your not going to mass transport their bodies.

Cows only really took off in America when we figured out how to refrigerate trucks and cart them out of the plains.
Coincidentally that old cowboy cattle drive thing we see in movies only had a really brief existence.

[Neonivek]

Rule of Thumb: Don't mess with a Sheppard!

[Org]

Rule of Thumb: Don't mess with a Sheppard!

Firefly?

[Neonivek]

Rule of Thumb: Don't mess with a Sheppard!

Firefly?

Mongols