At the Thai Elephant Conservation Center, tucked away in the trees near Chiang Mai, a pair of Asian elephants gazes at two bowls of corn on the other side of a net. The corn is attached to a sliding platform, through which researchers have threaded a rope. The rope's ends lie on the elephants' side of the net. If only one elephant pulls an end, the rope slides out of the contraption. To bring the food within trunk's reach, the elephants have to do something only humans and other primates were thought to do: they must cooperate. Working in synchrony, each elephant grabs its end of the rope in its trunk and pulls, drawing the platform and the treats within reach.

Six pairs of these large animals succeeded in solving this double rope puzzle. A lone elephant would wait as long as 45 seconds for a partner to arrive, showing it knew it needed a buddy to get the job done. Psychologist Joshua M. Plotnik of the University of Cambridge and his colleagues, who documented these findings in 2011, also noticed that the elephant duos used different strategies for obtaining the food, suggesting that the animals had developed a deep understanding of social cooperation.

This article was originally published with the title The Social Genius of Animals.

1 Comments

1. 1. taysi 03:24 PM 11/21/12

   While it may be 'only recently that researchers have realized the extent of animals' social intelligence' - ancient hunters, pastoralists, farmers, pet owners and other keen observers of animal behavior have been aware of these abilities for tens of thousands of years. As someone who grew up on a large, diverse farm and also followed and observed animals in the wild, I have always found these revelations of "surprising sophistication" in other sentient beings a source of huge exasperation, a sort of DUH!!! factor. While I appreciate the small progress being made in our "ability to understand and learn from others," I suspect that many of the subjects in such tests marvel at their silliness...

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