Humans have long mastered the art of expressing their goals and needs through both language and gestures. A similar behavior is also observed in non-human primates, who use complex gestures to convey what they want, but does the use of deliberate gestures extend beyond primates to other members of the animal kingdom?
Humans have long mastered the art of expressing their goals and needs through both language and gestures. A similar behavior is also observed in non-human primates, who use complex gestures to convey what they want, but does the use of deliberate gestures extend beyond primates to other members of the animal kingdom?
A recent study provided the first-ever evidence that, in the presence of a visually attentive audience, elephants are capable of using a wide range of gestures to convey their desires.
The findings were published in Royal Society Open Science.
To test whether elephants intentionally gesture to communicate their goals, the researchers presented 17 semi-captive African Savannah elephants in Zimbabwe with two trays: one containing six apples (the desired item) and the other empty (the non-desired item).
Their attempts to communicate with the experimenters were then recorded across three different outcomes. The first scenario was when they successfully communicated, and the experimenter gave the elephant all six apples. The second was when their goals were not met, and they were given the empty tray.
