Kings of the jungle- but also of the classroom?

Elephants- kings of the jungle and majestic giants that are loved by many- but how smart are they? In recent years, elephants have proven that their cognitive ability is also up there with chimps by demonstrating teamwork and the awareness of their teammate’s role in a task. Elephants also show compassion, whereby they show comfort to others who have been through a distressful event [1], and pass the self-recognition test [2].

Co-operation in the animal kingdom isn’t rare, many species are pre-programmed to work together to complete a goal, e.g., honeybees making honey, but for a species to truly understand how cooperation works, now that’s something far more complex [3]. In a study carried out by Joshua Plotnik [4], he presented two elephants with a task, pull the rope to retrieve a bucket full of seeds and nuts-yummy! These elephants quickly picked up the task and individually pulled the rope to retrieve the treats for themselves, sounds easy enough? Plotnik then decided to step it up a level, can these mammals with giant brains work together to complete the task? The layout was changed so both elephants needed to pull the rope to retrieve the food; if only one elephant pulled, both elephants retrieved nothing. After a bit of trial and error (always needed by many animals to understand a task), the elephants finally understood they needed to work together.

As previously stated, cooperation isn’t that impressive in the animal kingdom, so Plotnik wanted to see if the elephants understood each other’s role in the task. This is where a final step was added, holding one of the partners back. The results showed elephants retreated from the task when their partner wasn’t present or could not access the cord, showing that they fully understood the need for their partner in the completion of this task. It was also found that an elephant would wait 45 seconds for the release of their partner because they understood they could not obtain the reward without their partner’s presence- that’s a long time for an animal to wait and inhibit pulling for a reward [3]. The short video below shows the full task being completed by the elephants. Remarkably, when similar tests were carried out on crows, they did not wait for their partner [3].

What was also interestingly observed is the different elephants’ approach to the problem. A female 5-year-old elephant called Neua Un seemed to understand her role in that she must hold the rope, but wanted to play no part in pulling the rope, so stood on it to keep it from slipping, inevitably forcing her partner to do all the pulling to retrieve the table with the buckets- a true example of being both smart and lazy [3]! A male 18-year-old elephant named Jojo would not even approach the rope until their partner was allowed to, unsure why they did not but maybe they didn’t want to waste all the effort of walking over only to have to turn around again [3]! Though these two alternative approaches can be looked at with humour, it’s also important to look at the true meaning of these differential approaches. What it shows is something quite special- these elephants aren’t simply learning to carry out a particular set of steps to retrieve the goal, they fully understand each step and the function of the apparatus and have adapted the task to their own methods, really showing individuality, cognition and adaptability in their behaviour.

Another impressive skill elephants have is self-awareness. Plotnik also carried out this study with a simple mirror recognition test and a litmus mark test in the mirror to observe if the animals recognised the mark was on themselves and tried to remove it [2]. As predicted the elephants passed this test. This doesn’t just show these animals are aware of themselves as individuals but also suggests they have their own thoughts, desires, personalities, and the ability to display emotions such as empathy and selflessness [5].

From Plotnik's self-awareness study

So how does this mirror test work? In animals, it is usual that when they see another of their species (a conspecific) they react with social behaviours, these can be aggressive, sexual or amicable. All elephants initially react with social behaviours to the reflection, but over time they start to display repetitive behaviours such as face-touching to see if the reflection follows suit, this shows that they are self-aware and recognise the reflection is their own [5]. As seen in this study, elephants left with a mirror in their zoo enclosure became less bothered by the reflections which would not be true if they did not understand that the reflection was not them [2] (think of dogs or cats who always have a fight with themselves in the mirror every time). The next step is to put a recognisable mark on their face (as seen in the photo) to see if the elephants probe/inspect it with their trunk, and although only 1/3 of the elephants passed this test (similar results that are seen in chimpanzees) it still shows self-awareness.

Elephants are always regarded as highly intelligent but researching them is always difficult because of their massive size and the dangers that come with it. Plotnik refers to elephant research as ‘exciting but frustrating’ and says it took a year and a half to carry out the cooperative teamwork research [3], highlighting the difficulties of working with these incredible giants. But the results are worth it, proving that elephants’ 4 kg brains are as full of wisdom as we assume. This puts their cognitive abilities up there with what we regard as our ‘highest intelligent animals’ such as primates; another reason why their protection and conservation is so important. I say it every time, but animals continue to amaze me and I hope you guys also are sharing in my passion for all these amazing creatures.