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Jade Alison Lim

Dr. Lynda Haas
Writing 39C
06 May 2016
Historical Conversation Project:
The Cognitive Capabilities and Behaviors of Elephants
Have you ever wondered about what wild animals could be thinking about? Or if they are
even capable of feeling certain emotions just like humans? In this essay, I will share with you
some articles that have observed one of the biggest animals in the animal kingdom and their
cognition and emotional capacities. We will also look at some of the historical contexts that
focuses on elephants and their culture out in the wild and also how they became a part of some
societies in the world. There are variety of ways elephants within communities communicate,
especially when they are far away from each other or even when they are trying to leave subtle
hints being next to each other in ways like earflapping, stomping patterns and head nodding
(Garstang 58). We will see how the history of elephants and their culture have made their
cognition and emotional capabilities the way they are now.
Elephants in the wild have been observed to have certain traditions that are consistent
with other bond groups. Cynthia Moss, research member of the Amboseli Elephant Research
Project in Kenya, describes the elephant family units as bond groups differing from one
another mainly consisting of adult females whom are matrilineal relatives and their premature
offspring (Garstang 59). The age of maturity for male elephants is fifteen years old; they are
taught to leave their bond group and roam on their own or with other male elephants from other
bond groups until they mate with a female from another bond group (Byrne 2). Within their male

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societies that they temporarily create until maturity and mating, the age determines the social
standing; the oldest elephant in the bond group is left in charge and the more responsibility the
elephant has because they have to take care of the younger elephants (Garstang 92). Within the
bond groups, whether female and offspring or all male, elephants follow the oldest because that
is their way of showing respect in the group and knowing that by following the oldest, they are
also learning from elephants that have roamed the same lands from previous generations (Chiyo
1095, 1098).
From the historic Ice Age, where mammoths, which are closely related to elephants,
roamed the planet before any form of humanity existed, and through the ancient battles that
occurred in Europe and Asia, to modern day transportation, elephants have been part of our
service in some way or another. As we go back in history, we look at Robin Lane Fox, an English
classicist and ancient historian, and his book, Alexander the Great in the battle Alexander the
Great won against King Porus of India and captured the Indian armys war elephant, which later
symbolized imperial power, revealing the first interaction between elephants and humans in 327
BC (336, 339). From this first interaction it continued in the book called War in Ancient India
written by Ramachandra Dikshitar, a historian and an Indologist, where he explained that ancient
militaries in 900 A.D. used [1,000 elephants] in peace as a vehicle and in war as a combatant
(Figure 1) (166). Elephants were purposely bothered by their trainers in order for them to break
through the gates of their opponents (174). If these elephants lived through wars, do you think
they would have some sort of emotion towards the events they would have remembered? On
average, elephants are known to live for 60 years and they used their memory depending the
importance of certain information in order for them to survive (Garstang 19). According to
Christopher Plumb, a cultural historian from University of Manchester and the author of

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Strange and Wonderful: Encountering the Elephant in Britain, 1675-1830, the relationship
between human and elephants continued in 1674 at Whitefriars in London, England when
elephants
were found
roaming into
the cities,
they were
offered to
Figure 1: Ancient Indian Military covered the elephants with armor when going into combat (Dikshitar)

Queen

Charlotte as a present during her reign (531). In modern day, elephants have been domesticated
for entertainment, such as circuses or zoos, and street elephants, which are popular in Thailand
and India used for transportation, building and logging. With this thought in mind, dont you
think elephants have been underestimated as to what they are truly capable of if they were to be
out in the wild more than being domesticated?
As we begin to talk about the elephant and their cognition capabilities, we look into a
study conducted in 1953 by Bernhard Rensch, a German evolutionary biologist and ornithologist,
and Rudolf Altevogt, a German evolutionary biologist, recorded in the journal Visual Learning
Ability of Indian Elephant, focused on training a young Indian elephant to accurately
distinguish which was the correct choice between pairs of patterns in a deck of 20 cards (Figure
2). This observation was used in order to determine the correlation of the increase in brain size
being directly dependent on the animals learning capabilities. Although the hypothesis included
various observations of animals ranging in size to test, such as an Amazon parrot, mice, different
types of fowls and elephants, it presented the outcomes as false because even the smallest in

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brain size were capable of learning the same amount (Rensch 90). As we put our focus on the
training that the Indian elephant was experimented on, Richard Byrne and Lucy Bates, which of
whom are professors in the School of Psychology at the University of St. Andrews and authors of
Elephant Cognition in Primate Perspective, explain that elephants use their memory in order to
survive in any given environment; an elephants body size must be correlated to the size of its
brain and memory (70). Like the deck of cards in Rensch and Altevogts experiment, In
Elephants and Ethics: Toward a Morality of Coexistence written by Christen Wemmer and
Catherine Christen, mirror self-recognition (MSR) is expected to have a correlation along
higher forms of altruistic behavior and empathy (Wemmer 91). Self-recognition is another
form of intelligence; which elephants are capable of doing just as primates are. Being able to
recognize yourself through a reflection of a mirror signifies that one is self-aware of their actions

Figure 2: 20 pairs
of patterns
cards used
in them
the experiment
on the
Indian
elephant,
pattern on the left are c
and the
emotions on
of others
around
(Garstang 50).
Poole
mentions
that inwhere
manythe
cases,

mammals react aggressively seeing their reflections which is an indication of them not knowing
their behaviors or thoughts and relying more on replicating actions they see others do. Do you
think these experiments in order to determine intelligence is a good way to do so? In our human
society, we think of self-recognition as confident but narcissistic at a certain extent; feeling
confident is one thing, do you think elephants would feel the same way about themselves or
others around them? Are their actions affected by their emotions just like ours?
With the age of maturity for males being fifteen, as previously mentioned from Moss
review, the mindset is in need of a change in order to understand what the true meaning of being
an adult means (Rothfels 41). Mother and allomothers in bond groups gave comfort towards
premature elephants that have been abandoned and is taken in as their own; adult female
elephants are protective of their young especially when there is a sign of predators (Garstang 48).

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Also, elephants are able to recognize other animals emotions and are very sensitive towards
them; showing empathy, they help other animals in times of need (Wemmer 83). According to
Rickye Heffner and Henry Heffner, who are from the Laboratory of Comparative Hearing,
Bureau of Child Research at the University of Kansas, observed in Hearing in the Elephant:
Absolute Sensitivity, Frequency Discrimination, and Sound Localization that size of the
elephant is a factor when correlated with ability in hearing (926). Along with the widest
frequency of hearing, they use their calls as a sign of expressing along with the use of body
language certain emotions such as sadness, grieving and throwing tantrums (Figure 3) (Garstang

Figure 3: The range of frequency the female call goes for more than 400 Hz, revealing that other elep
43). Is that similar to our way of alarming others of our certain emotions such as anger or
frustration?
In conclusion, we see how the historical contexts, communication skills reveal more
about their cognition and emotional capabilities. Elephants have the capabilities of responding

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emotionally and reasonably towards situations that they encounter throughout their lives. Being
able to recognize such behavior gives more of a reason to explore and observe how one thought
leads to an action for elephants. Although some are not fully aware of themselves, does not
necessarily mean they are not emotionally attached. When it comes to being an orphaned
elephant, bond groups learn how to care for them and treat them like their own, showing the
characteristic of leadership and understanding every situation.

Works Cited:

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Byrne, Richard W., Lucy A. Bates, and Cynthia J. Moss. "Elephant Cognition in Primate
Perspective." Comparative Cognition & Behavior Reviews CCBR 4 (2009): 1-15. Print.
Chiyo, Patrick I., Elizabeth A. Archie, Julie A. Hollister-Smith, Phyllis C. Lee, Joyce H. Poole,
Cynthia J. Moss, and Susan C. Alberts. "Association Patterns of African Elephants in Allmale Groups: The Role of Age and Genetic Relatedness." Animal Behaviour 81.6 (2011):
1093-099. Web.
Dikshit, V. R. Ramachandra. "Army and Army Divisions." War in Ancient India. Madras,
Bombay: Macmillan and Limited, 1948. 166-74. Delhi University Library. Web. 05 May
2016.
Fox, Robin Lane. "Into the East." Alexander the Great. New York: Dial, 1974. 331-79. Print.
Garstang, Michael. "Elephant Sense and Sensibility." Academic Press (2015). Science Direct.
Elsevier, 20 Feb. 2015. Web. 24 Apr. 2016.
Heffner, R. S., & Heffner, H. E. (1982). Hearing in the elephant: absolute sensitivity, frequency
discrimination and sound localization. Journal of Comparative and Physiological
Psychology, 96, 926-944.
Mccomb, K., G. Shannon, S. M. Durant, K. Sayialel, R. Slotow, J. Poole, and C. Moss.
"Leadership in Elephants: The Adaptive Value of Age." Proceedings of the Royal Society
B: Biological Sciences 278.1722 (2011): 3270-276. Web.
Moss, Cynthia. Elephant Memories: Thirteen Years in the Life of an Elephant Family. Chicago:
U of Chicago, 2012. Print.
Moss, Cynthia, Harvey Croze, and Phyllis C. Lee. "Behavior, Communication and
Cognition." The Amboseli Elephants: A Long-term Perspective on a Long-lived Mammal.
Chicago: U of Chicago, 2011. 107-84. Print.

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Plumb, Christopher. "Strange and Wonderful: Encountering the Elephant in Britain, 16751830." Journal for Eighteenth-Century Studies 33.4 (2010): 525-43. Rhino Resource
Center. 17 Nov. 2010. Web. 5 May 2016.
Rensch, B. (1956). Increase of learning capability with increase of brain size. The American
Naturalist, 90, 81-95. JSTOR. Web. 05 May 2016.
Rensch, Bernhard, and Rudolf Altevogt. "Visual Learning Ability of Indian Elephant (Das
Ausma Visueller Lernfhigkeit Eines Indischen Elefanten)." Journal of Animal
Psychology 12.1 (1953): 68-76. Wiley Library. Web. 06 May 2016.
Rothfels, N., "The Eyes of Elephants: Changing Perceptions." (2008): 39-50. Web. 19 Apr. 2016.
Wemmer, Christen M., and Catherine A. Christen. Elephants and Ethics: Toward a Morality of
Coexistence. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins UP, 2008. Print.