Elephants understand human gestures

A new study shows that elephants can understand human gestures without training or domestication.

>>>Video: Elephants understand human gestures

Richard Byrne and his colleague Anna Smet from the University of St Andrews, Scotland, conducted research with 11 African elephants carrying tourists in the Victoria Falls area, located near the border between Zambia and Zimbabwe. Elephants are trained to follow voice requests, but are not trained to understand human gestures.

During the study, they hid the pieces of food in some small containers, then pointed at the box with the food hidden to guide the elephants. After about two-thirds of the time, elephants went to the right place to hide their previous food. All 5 elephants have a correct choice, even many children choose the right place to store food from the first time.

African elephants follow the hands of humans.(Photo: ibtimes.com)

"By pointing out that African elephants naturally understand human gestures without training, we can prove that this ability is not only available in humans but has evolved in one kind. animals are different from primates , " said NBC News Richard Byrne. "What really surprised us was that they didn't need to learn anything. They were able to understand very well, even from the first try, in the end we could recognize the ability to understand elections. only people of this animal ".

The team's findings suggest that the ability of humans to follow the pointing action of elephants may stem from their social characteristics. Elephants live in large flocks and exhibit many acts of expressing emotions such as marking the members' graves and crying for the death of dead elephants. Elephants can also identify themselves in a mirror, a sign of animals that have social and empathy.

Elephants live in a relatively complex network, in which sharing and helping other animals are important for survival. It may be a society where the ability to follow gestures will help them adapt to life, or the elephant society has chosen a possibility to understand the behavior of other species while communicating with them.