A point, a wave, a thumbs-up, or a nod of the head. Human communication is filled with nonverbal cues and gestures. Now, scientists have recorded semi-captive elephants intentionally adopting different gestures to reach a specific goal — in this case, obtaining fruit from humans.
The researchers note a surprising level of complexity, with elephants using 38 different gesture types to communicate their goals. What’s more, the animals demonstrated perseverance, continuing to gesture when goals were only partially met, and changed tactics when their request was ignored. The study was published in Royal Society Open Science.
Communication in Animals
Goal-directed intentionality refers to the ability to communicate your goals effectively to others. It is something we humans do all the time and a capacity we share with our closest relatives — apes.
Previous studies have shown that wild apes can use more than a hundred gesture types and adapt their communication accordingly, depending on the context and recipient. Some primates have also displayed goal-directed intentionality, but few other species are known to exhibit this behavior, and when they do, it is extremely limited.
Take, for example, the Arabian babbler. These birds present objects and perform a “babbler walk” — an activity that involves a lot of wing waving and vocalization — when they want to encourage another bird to follow them. But now, it seems goal-directed intentionality might be more widespread in the animal kingdom than previously thought.
Read More: Elephant Greeting Ceremonies are More Complex Than They Look
Elephants Ask for Apples
The last time we shared a common ancestor with elephants was approximately 100 million years ago. Yet, there are some key traits we have in common. Elephants, like us, are long-lived and have large brains. They also maintain long-term relationships and exist in complex social structures, where the ability to communicate effectively and flexibly would be beneficial.
There is already evidence that vision and touch may play an important role in elephant communication. Recent research suggests that semi-captive elephants display greeting behaviors with one another, for example. However, it was not clear if they possessed the capacity for goal-directed intentionality.
To find out, 17 semi-captive elephants were presented with two objects: a tray of apples and an empty tray. An experimenter either offered the elephant the tray of apples (goal met), a single apple (goal partially met), or the empty tray (goal not met).
The researchers considered three criteria. The first was audience-directedness. Are gestures performed in front of an experimenter? Does the elephant respond differently depending on whether or not the experimenter is paying attention? The second was persistence. Does the elephant continue to gesture when the goal is only partially met? And the third was elaboration. Does the elephant change gestures to clarify their meaning if previous gestures have been unsuccessful?
An Elephant of a Gesture
In total, they noted 313 gestures and 38 different gesture types, 19 of which were specific to individual elephants and 19 that were observed in two or more elephants. The majority of directed actions (161) were directed towards the experimenter, followed by 29 directed towards their own body, and 12 towards the tray containing apples.
The gestures were almost exclusively made when the experimenter was present and attentive (audience directedness, tick). Elephants continued to gesture when their goal was only partially met (persistence, tick). And they adopted different gestures when their goal was not met (elaboration, tick). Combined, the researchers say, this offers evidence for goal-directed intentionality in a non-primate species — elephants.
The research suggests nonverbal communication in semi-captive elephants is more complex than previously thought. The team hopes future research will investigate the meanings of individual gestures as well as whether this goal-directed intentionality extends to wild elephants and other species.
Read More: A Massive Elephant Could Be More Empathetic Than a Human
Article sources
Our writers at Discovermagazine.com use peer-reviewed studies and high-quality sources for our articles, and our editors review for scientific accuracy and editorial standards. Review the sources used below for this article:
- Royal Society Open Science. Investigating intentionality in elephant gestures
