Elephants Ask Humans for Food Using Non-Verbal Gestures — A First in Non-Primates
A point, a wave, a boost or a head sign. Human communication is filled with indices and non -verbal gestures. Now, scientists have recorded semi -capital elephants intentionally adopting different gestures to achieve a specific objective – in this case, obtain fruit from humans.
Researchers note a surprising level of complexity, with elephants using 38 different types of gestures to communicate their objectives. In addition, animals have demonstrated persistence, continuing to make a gesture when the objectives were only partially achieved and changed tactics when their request was ignored. The study was published in Royal Society of Open Sciences.
Communication in animals
Objective intentionality refers to the ability to effectively communicate your objectives to others. This is something that we, humans, do all the time and an ability that we share with our closest parents – monkeys.
Previous studies have shown that wild monkeys can use more than a hundred types of gestures and adapt their communication accordingly, depending on the context and the recipient. Some primates have also shown an intentionality led by the objective, but few other species are known to present this behavior, and when they do it, it is extremely limited.
Take, for example, the Arab babrlier. These birds have objects and carry out a “Babbler step” – an activity that involves a lot of waving wings and vocalization – when they want to encourage another bird to follow them. But now it seems that the intentionality led by the objective is more widespread in the animal kingdom than we thought before.
Learn more: Elephant greeting ceremonies are more complex than they look like it
Elephants require apples
The last time we shared a common ancestor with elephants was around 100 million years ago. However, we have key features in common. Elephants like us have a long time and have big brains. They also maintain long -term relationships and exist in complex social structures, where the ability to communicate effectively and in a flexible way would be beneficial.
There is already evidence that vision and touch can play an important role in the communication of elephants. Recent research suggests that semi-capital elephants have greeting behavior with each other, for example. However, it was not clear if they had the capacity of intentionality led by the objective.
To find out, 17 semi-capital elephants were presented with two objects: an apple top and an empty tray. An experimenter offered the elephant the apple plateau (objective reached), only one apple (partially achieved lens) or the empty tray (objective not achieved).
The researchers examined three criteria. The first was the management of the hearing. Are gestures made before an experimenter? Does the elephant react differently depending on whether the experimenter is careful or not? The second was of persistence. Does the elephant continue to make a gesture when the objective is only partially achieved? And the third was the development. Does the elephant change gestures to clarify its meaning if the previous gestures have failed?
An elephant of a gesture
In total, they noted 313 gestures and 38 different types of gestures, including 19 specific to individual elephants and 19 which were observed in two or more elephants. The majority of the actions directed (161) were directed towards the experimenter, followed by 29 directed towards their own body, and 12 to the plateau containing apples.
The gestures were almost exclusively made when the experimenter was present and attentive (realization of the public, tick). The elephants continued to make a gesture when their objective was only partially achieved (persistence, tick). And they adopted various gestures when their objective was not achieved (development, tick). Combined, according to the researchers, this offers evidence of intentionality led by objectives in a non -primary species – elephants.
Research suggests that non-verbal communication in semi-capital elephants is more complex than we thought before. The team hopes that future research will study the meanings of individual gestures as well as if this directed intentionality extends to wild elephants and other species.
Learn more: A massive elephant could be more empathetic than a human
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