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Cooperating elephants win food prize

elephant.jpgAsian Elephants can cooperate to achieve a common goal, according to new research published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science.

Elephants have been observed to work together in the wild and are widely assumed to be of high intelligence – they are known to care for each others’ calves and will help other elephants get out of dangerous situations – but this is the first time they have demonstrated the same ability to cooperate as other intelligent mammals like chimpanzees.

Researchers from the University of Cambridge, UK, set up a study with elephants from the Thai Elephant Conservation Center in which pairs of elephants had to work together to pull a platform of food within reach. The elephants were trained to pull a rope to bring food towards them and were then presented with ropes that they had to pull at the same time as another elephant to get the food source. If only one rope was pulled at a time the rope would unravel and the elephants would be left with nothing.

The study set up three scenarios that required varying amounts of coordinated behaviour. First the two elephants were released to the ropes at the same time, then at different times and lastly one elephant could not get to the rope.

The first release saw the elephants reach the food at least eight successful times. In the second scenario all six elephants would wait for their partner between 88% and 97% of the time (subscription necessary). In the third the retreat of one elephant when they had no access to the rope would result in the other elephant not attempting the task. The response from the elephants to the three variations of the study highlights that they not only understood the importance of their partner’s presence but also of their cooperation and ability to do the task together.

Here is a video of the experiment:

There are thought to be fewer than 2,500 wild elephants left in the Thai jungle, a situation the researchers want to raise awareness of. This twinned with Frans de Waal’s theory that we could learn lessons on how to improve our society from animals, explored in his book The Age of Empathy: Nature’s Lessons for a Kinder Society as reviewed by Nature (subscription required), shows the importance of protecting elephants and their habitats.

Image: Photo by S Baker via Flickr under Creative Commons

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