Elephants Know What It Means to Point to Something, No Training Required

Hi peeps...

Well seemingly elephants not only never forget but they can also find food solely by human gestures..

When people want to direct the attention of others, they naturally do so by pointing, starting from a very young age. Now, researchers reporting in Current Biology, a Cell Press publication, on October 10 have shown that elephants spontaneously get the gist of human pointing and can use it as a cue for finding food. That's all the more impressive given that many great apes fail to understand pointing when it's done for them by human caretakers, the researchers say.

www.sciencedaily.com...

Wow how cool is that..! My dog definitely understands what pointing means. If we are out on a walk and we have to take a left or right turn all I have to do is point in that direction and he goes. Without saying a word. It is fascinating that elephants are able to understand that when a human points it means go in that general direction. I wonder what else they pick up from us..

Just an interesting article I thought I would share..



Peace
Fluff

When I heard that headline a while ago I facepalmed.

How much money was wasted figuring that out?

"Hey, I wrote up a hypothesis and tested it. I point over there and the elephant looks! Now I'll write a journal article and get published"

So. Stupid.

Even my cat knows when I am pointing at something, did anyone else not think an elephant wouldn't?

I'm going to do an experiment of my own. If I don't water my lawn it seems to die each time. I guess lawns know when they aren't getting water.

SMH.

reply to post by fluff007


That is awesome, thank you for brining this to my attention I'm very interested in animal intelligence as well as plant.

I have believed since childhood that animals are people too within thier own kind....and it is just our natural predudice that prevents moat of us from seeing this.

Just amazing!

Thx Gain and cheers!

reply to post by fluff007


Elephants are smart ........

video.nationalgeographic.com...

...is your seven year old that smart? (i hope she / he is but that's a new topic.)

reply to post by MystikMushroom

When I heard that headline a while ago I facepalmed. How much money was wasted figuring that out? "Hey, I wrote up a hypothesis and tested it. I point over there and the elephant looks! Now I'll write a journal article and get published" So. Stupid. Even my cat knows when I am pointing at something, did anyone else not think an elephant wouldn't? I'm going to do an experiment of my own. If I don't water my lawn it seems to die each time. I guess lawns know when they aren't getting water. SMH.

I saw this report on TV tonight, actually it isn't quite as cut and dry stupid as you think.

The elephants in question were getting food from containers positioned very close together after a researcher (whilst standing perfectly still) simply pointed at it.

These were wild elephants not trained ones, and were getting the correct container on the first attempt, apparently this is something that a Chimp struggles to do even when trained.

The consensus was that elephants use their trunks to point out stuff to each other in the wild.....personally I thought it was a cool experiment.

What is strange with this news? Has anyone seen elephants handle the dead?

It's a big step to find out that you are not so special after all you know. As a species anyway.

Elephants have several senses that are a lot more sensitive then humans, they have large brains, learn like we do and are known to mourn their dead. Social life is very complex and they take care of the sick and handicapped members of the group.

The conclusion of this article seems pretty stupid actually. As if it is surprising....

They also know how to throw rocks at us silly humans. Before they kill us...

reply to post by fluff007


When you consider that their trunks are a primary tool of communication (likely the biggest "pointer" in the animal kingdom), I would be surprised if they didn't know what pointing meant.

As plain as the nose on your face!