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192 Box B3 Elephant ognition: An verviee

VetBooks.ir match‐to‐sample paradigm (von Dürckheim 1999), and it is assumed that due to their long
lives and slow maturation, social transfer of
et al. 2018), and to detect TNT (Miller et al.
2015). Plotnik et al. (2014) found that Asian
be explicitly tested. Distinct socio‐cognitive
elephants could use olfactory cues to find knowledge is likely, although this has yet to
food and exclude non‐rewarding choices, but abilities have also been tested with elephants
not acoustic cues to find the same food. This in more controlled, captive settings. Plotnik
evidence implies that elephants are using a et al. (2006) demonstrated that elephants
complement of multiple senses to navigate are capable of mirror self‐recognition
their worlds, an important consideration for (Figure B3.1), an ability linked to self‐
the design of future cognitive experiments. awareness and which develops in human
children concurrently with empathy and
sympathetic concern (Zahn‐Waxler et al.
Social Cognition 1992). This evidence, combined with a study
revealing that elephants reassure others in
Elephants are social animals whose complex distress (Plotnik and de Waal 2014), suggests
fission–fusion social structure suggests that a level of social understanding in elephants
their cognitive abilities evolved to maintain that may be comparable to that of the great
strong social relationships (Payne 2003). apes. Elephants are also able to cooperate in
Ethological experiments conducted in popu- a complex task in which they must recognise
lations of African savanna elephants have their partner’s role to coordinate and retrieve
greatly informed our understanding of food (Figure B3.2; Plotnik et al. 2011).
the social cognition of this species. From
these studies, we know that elephants recog-
nise their social companions’ vocalisations Physical Cognition
(McComb et al. 2003) and odour cues, as well
as track the location of other individuals in Elephants’ physical cognition abilities – their
relation to themselves (Bates et al. 2008). knowledge of space, objects, and causal rela-
Long‐term ethological research has also tionships – have also been investigated. Their
described the level of information exchange spatial knowledge has, for instance, been
between individual elephants (Lee and Moss investigated in studies tracking wild elephants’

Figure B3.1 TangMo the elephant inspects her mirror image at the Golden Triangle Asian Elephant
Foundation in Chiang Rai, Thailand. Source: Joshua Plotnik.