Asian elephants have passed a test of cooperation with flying colours, one that cognitive psychologists say demonstrates an ape-level awareness and sense of teamwork. Their collaboration isn't just the product of rote learning, but the result of careful thought.

In the wild, of course, elephants routinely work together. But that doesn't pass laboratory muster, said University of Cambridge psychologist Joshua Plotkin.

"It's anecdotal evidence. These animals are empathetic, they're cooperative," he said. "But how empathetic? How cooperative? The best we can do is institute controls, do experiments like this, and figure out how what they do is unique from learning."

Plotnik's experiment, published 8 March in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, was conducted when he was a student of famed Emory University ethologist Frans de Waal. In 2006, they showed that elephants could recognise themselves in a mirror, a benchmark feat believed to indicate an especially sophisticated level of self-awareness, on par with that of young humans.

Though important, mirror self-recognition is just one test, and doesn't address the sort of cooperative behaviour for which elephants are famed in the wild. They're known to help individuals in distress, cooperate in rearing children and may even mourn their dead. From a behavioral perspective, they clearly demonstrate empathy.


But behavioral records from the wild are not the currency of cognitive psychology. After all, bees display incredible coordination, but few people would compare an individual bee's consciousness to that of a person. According to Plotnik, one could argue that elephants and other cooperative animals are acting reflexively rather than thoughtfully. So he and de Waal turned to a test originally developed to measure cooperation in chimpanzees.

In the original test, two chimps pulled on ropes attached to an otherwise inaccessible, food-containing box too heavy for one alone to move. In the version updated for elephantine strength -- a too-heavy box would have been "as big as a 747," said Plotnik -- the rope was arranged so that if one elephant pulled alone, its partner couldn't reach the rope. To get a banana treat, both had to pull simultaneously.

Plotniks' elephants pick the trick up quickly. Then, in the study's key step, they demonstrated patience. If only one elephant was present, it would wait for a partner to arrive. Until then, it wouldn't try to pull the rope, and often wouldn't pick it up.

If the elephants pulled automatically, it would be evidence of reflexive behavior, said Plotnik. Waiting indicated something more. They understood that their own effort wasn't enough. They understood their partner's role. (One elephant, seen in the video below, even figured out how to cheat. By standing on her end of the rope rather than pulling, her partner had to do all the work -- not very nice, perhaps, but smart.)

Plotnik's now working on other, more sophisticated tests of elephant cooperation. He hopes to measure how they see other species, process information in the wild, find food and water, and care for one another. But he acknowledges that Asian elephants are unique among social, cooperative animals in their amenability to study. Other animals -- say, lions -- may be just as smart, but not so easy to test.

"Just because something hasn't been tested doesn't mean you reject it as not being possible," he said.

Video: 1) Two Asian elephants help each other pull a table bearing banana treats closer./Joshua Plotnik, University of Cambridge. 2) An especially clever Asian elephant named Neua Un figures out how to make her partner do all the work./Joshua Plotnik, University of Cambridge.



Latest on