Washington, Mar 8 (ANI): A new study has proved that elephants are not only intelligent, but also possess the ability to cooperate and understand the logic behind teamwork.
Elephants recently aced a test of their intelligence and ability to cooperate, with two of them even figuring out shortcuts that the researchers had not previously considered to obtain food rewards.
Scientists now believe that these pachyderm problem-solvers are in league with chimpanzees and dolphins as being among the world's most cognitively advanced animals.
"Elephant sociality is very complex. Cooperation in elephants was most likely necessary in a context of communal care for, and protection of, young," Joshua Plotnik, lead author and a Cambridge University researcher who is also head of research at Thailand's Golden Triangle Asian Elephant Foundation, told the Discovery News.
"In the wild, there are fascinating anecdotes of elephants working together to lift or help fallen members, and forming clusters to protect younger elephants," he added.
Tests of elephant intelligence and their other abilities are rare, simply because working with these large and potentially dangerous animals poses risks.
To meet the challenge, Plotnik and his colleagues reworked a classic 1930s experiment used on primates.
They positioned a sliding table, holding enticing red bowls full of yummy corn, some distance away from a volleyball net. A rope was tied around the table such that the table would only move if two elephants working together pulled on the dangling rope ends.
If just one elephant pulled, the rope would unravel. To get to the front of the volleyball net, the elephants had to walk down two separate, roped-off lanes.
A total of 12 male and female elephants from the Thai Elephant Conservation Center in Lampang, Thailand, participated in the test.
After quickly learning that the corn-on-the-table task could not be successfully completed solo, elephants would wait up to 45 seconds for the second 'partner' elephant to show up.
If the researchers did not release this second elephant, the first one basically looked around as if to say: 'You've got to be kidding. It takes two to do this'. In most cases, the elephants got the corn.
Two elephants, named Neua Un and JoJo, even figured out how to outwit the researchers.
"We were pleasantly surprised to see the youngest elephant, Neua Un, use her foot to hold the rope so that her partner had to do all the work," said Plotnik.
"I hadn't thought about this beforehand, and Neua Un seemed to figure it out by chance, but it speaks volumes to the flexibility of elephant behaviour that she was able to figure this out and stick to it," he added.
The other 'cheater' JoJo didn't even bother to walk up to the volleyball net unless his partner Wanalee was released.
"Perhaps he had learned that if he approached the rope without her, he'd fail," said Plotnik, adding that such advanced learning, problem-solving, and cooperation are rare in the animal kingdom.
The study is published in the latest Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. (ANI)
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