The elephants in the study used both physical contact and vocal sounds as forms of comfort, stroking one another with their trunks and emitting small chirps. When researchers stood between the containers and did not point, the elephants approached them randomly.Ī recent study observed Asian elephants comforting one another when distressed. That’s only about 5 percent lower than how one-year-old human babies perform on similar tests. Without any previous training, the elephants picked the correct container almost 68 percent of the time. They tested this by pointing at food hidden in one of two identical containers, and observing which container a group of captive African elephants approached. Researchers recently observed evidence that elephants might understand human pointing. Others have been observed digging a hole to reach drinking water, and then plugging the hole with a ball formed from chewed bark to prevent the water from evaporating, thus saving it for later use. Similarly, elephants have been known to use sticks to scratch themselves in areas they couldn’t otherwise reach, and fashion fly swatters out of branches or grass.
MYTHICAL ELEPHANT PREDATORS HOW TO
He repeated the trick with other tools, and even figured out how to stack blocks to reach even higher. While Kandula’s “aha moment” didn’t happen immediately, it stuck with him. After watching the fruit, tantalizingly, for a few days, Kandula had an "aha moment." He found a large plastic block, rolled it over, and stepped on it, propping himself up just far enough to reach the fruit with his trunk. In 2010, a 7-year-old Asian elephant named Kandula impressed researchers by utilizing tools from his surroundings to reach fruit that had been strategically placed just beyond his reach. What’s more, the same recordings made by women and children of either tribe left the elephants unfazed, suggesting they can not only distinguish between ethnic groups, but between age and gender as well, knowing that men are the most likely to pose a threat, especially Maasai men. "The ability to distinguish between Maasai and Kamba men delivering the same phrase in their own language suggests that elephants can discriminate between different languages," said the study’s co-author Graeme Shannon, a visiting fellow in psychology at the University of Sussex.
But the same phrase spoken by a Kamba man evoked no reaction from the elephants. When the elephants heard the Maasai, they showed signs of fear, huddling together and moving away from the voice. The researchers recorded the two men saying, “Look, look over there, a group of elephants is coming,” in their different languages, and played these recordings to elephant family groups at Amboseli National Park in Kenya.
The Maasai have a history of killing wild elephants, while the Kamba do not. To test this, researchers found two Kenyan men from different ethnic groups, the Maasai and the Kamba. If the voice belongs to a person who is more likely to pose a threat, the elephants switch into defensive mode.
Researchers at the University of Sussex in Brighton, UK have discovered that African elephants can distinguish differences in human gender, age, and ethnicity purely by the sound of someone’s voice. Here, a few interesting findings about the intelligence of elephants. While many of these neurons exist to control the elephant’s large and dexterous body, these creatures have demonstrated their impressive mental capabilities time and time again. They have the largest brain of any land animal, and three times as many neurons as humans. 7 Behaviors That Prove Elephants Are Incredibly SmartĮlephants are exceptionally smart creatures.
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