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| Elephants Get the Point of Pointing, Study Shows | Elephants Get the Point of Pointing, Study Shows |
| (3 days later) | |
| We point to things without giving much thought to what a sophisticated act it really is. By simply extending a finger, we can let other people know we want to draw their attention to an object, and indicate which object it is. | We point to things without giving much thought to what a sophisticated act it really is. By simply extending a finger, we can let other people know we want to draw their attention to an object, and indicate which object it is. |
By Anna Smet and Richard ByrneIt's known that elephants are social creatures, but scientists have now discovered that they appear to understand human pointing. | By Anna Smet and Richard ByrneIt's known that elephants are social creatures, but scientists have now discovered that they appear to understand human pointing. |
| For two months, Ms. Smet tested 11 elephants. When she crunched the data afterward, she found that the elephants picked the right bucket 67.5 percent of the time. (One-year-old human babies do a little better at these tests, scoring 72.7 percent.) | For two months, Ms. Smet tested 11 elephants. When she crunched the data afterward, she found that the elephants picked the right bucket 67.5 percent of the time. (One-year-old human babies do a little better at these tests, scoring 72.7 percent.) |
| Ms. Smet found that the elephants could follow her pointing whether she stuck out her whole arm or just used her hand. And when she simply stood between the buckets, by contrast, the elephants stuck their trunks in the buckets at random. | Ms. Smet found that the elephants could follow her pointing whether she stuck out her whole arm or just used her hand. And when she simply stood between the buckets, by contrast, the elephants stuck their trunks in the buckets at random. |
| Ms. Smet and Dr. Byrne published their results Thursday in the journal Current Biology. | Ms. Smet and Dr. Byrne published their results Thursday in the journal Current Biology. |
| The scientists were able to rule out the possibility that the elephants learned to associate pointing with food over the course of the experiments. “They were just as good on Trial 1,” said Dr. Byrne. | |
| Other researchers were intrigued but cautious about drawing conclusions from the study. Diana Reiss, an expert on elephant cognition at Hunter College, wondered if the elephants had already learned about pointing by observing their handlers pointing to each other. | Other researchers were intrigued but cautious about drawing conclusions from the study. Diana Reiss, an expert on elephant cognition at Hunter College, wondered if the elephants had already learned about pointing by observing their handlers pointing to each other. |
| “In these elephant camps such opportunities can easily go unnoticed by their human caretakers,” said Dr. Reiss. | “In these elephant camps such opportunities can easily go unnoticed by their human caretakers,” said Dr. Reiss. |
| Dr. Byrne and Ms. Smet plan to address this question and investigate whether wild elephants can point to each other. | Dr. Byrne and Ms. Smet plan to address this question and investigate whether wild elephants can point to each other. |
| “It makes us want to revisit visual signals by elephants for elephants,” said Ms. Smet. | “It makes us want to revisit visual signals by elephants for elephants,” said Ms. Smet. |
| Dr. Byrne is also curious to know whether any other highly social wild mammals can also pass the pointing test. Whales and dolphins would be at the top of his list, but he isn’t holding his breath for those experiments to be published. “They make elephants look easy to work with,” he said. | Dr. Byrne is also curious to know whether any other highly social wild mammals can also pass the pointing test. Whales and dolphins would be at the top of his list, but he isn’t holding his breath for those experiments to be published. “They make elephants look easy to work with,” he said. |