IF you want to chat with an elephant, be sure to face it to face. These creatures, it seems, are best communicated with people whose bodies and faces are turned to them, according to recent research about Asian elephants published in Scientific reportsField
When studying visual communication in animals, scientists are mainly focused on species, such as inhuman primates that have developed complex socialization signals. ChimpanzeeFor example, communication was observed through Hand gesturesThe field even after many years of training is still unclear how such visual signals developed – for a better understanding of this behavior, scientists look beyond the borders of ordinary suspects.
Elephants, for example, are primarily relying on sound and smells to communicate with peers –Areas of the brain of elephants There are much more associated with these feelings than their visual bark. Nevertheless, the elephants observed that when communication during communication, certain visible signals were included, including the movement of ears and trunks.
To understand the understanding of African elephants about visual attention from people, scientists have previously studied their behavior in search of food in relation to the human experimenter. African elephants, as a rule, showed more noticeable signals to this person when she tilted her face and body to them, according to 2014. Biological letters paperThis is the field suggests that “elephants understand the importance of visual attention for effective communication,” the authors of this article wrote.
But little is known about this phenomenon among the Asian cousins of these elephants. Asian and African elephants were divided about 5-7 million years ago and since then encountered various social and environmental contexts that can affect their behavior unique. In a similar experiment with Biological letters Research, researchers based in Japan, United States and Thailand observed 10 captured women -Asian elephants, when they signaling a person for food.
In the camp of nature protection in Thailand, Hoy-Lama Jim, a researcher of animal behavior and comparative knowledge at the Kyoto University in Japan, was separated from each elephant by a volleyball network. Jim demonstrated the elephant’s food on a wooden tray, then put the tray on the ground, prompting the pachids to request a snack, moving his trunks and heads. Then Jim took one of four poses for 20 seconds – his face and body turned to the elephant, just his face or The body turned to the elephant, or both turned away from the elephant. To set the basic line during each elephant testing session, Jim also raised food and hid behind a piece of grass, measuring how the animals reacted to the lack of human presence.
Scientists recorded the reaction of elephants and determined that the elephants made the most noticeable gestures looking for food, when both the body and the experimenter's face were turned to these animals. While the orientation to the body seemed to have a slightly stronger effect than the orientation of the face, “neither face nor orientation to the body was sufficient to increase gestures,” the authors of the study write. They also noticed that the venaver of elephant gestures, when Jim was rejected, looked like when Jim was completely absent.
“We were surprised to find that elephants were not a gesture simply because a person was present,” Jim said in his statement.
These recent results coincide with earlier conclusions on African elephants, along with 2004 Study in monkeysNevertheless, it is also possible that monkeys can read human faces better than elephants, because they are more visually similar to their own, they offer Jim and its co -authors. It is important to keep in mind that these experiments mainly participated in captivity, which were used to spending time with people – the interaction of interspecies outside the captivity can more depend on the language of the body and appearance of people than their faces, because wild elephants are not inclined to approach people.
For example, the people of Maasai from Kenya and Tanzania became a growing conflict with elephants as human infrastructure expands; In the experiment, the elephants were found In order to more aggressively respond to red, which wears Masai than neutral white.
But when communicating with members of their own species, elephants can be more sensitive to visual attention from people, the authors note. IN study On the African elephants of the savannah, these animals seemed to prefer to give silent, visible gestures when they greeted the peers who looked right at them, and switched to noisy and tactile behavior for their less attentive stoils.
The latest study adds to the growing evidence of elephant intelligence, but there is still much to find out. In the future, Jim and her colleagues want to plunge into other aspects of smart Asian elephants, including cooperation and their understanding of the delay in satisfaction.
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