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Answer by Rory Young, Professional Safari Guide, Ranger and Tracker
"The animal which surpasses all others in wit and mind", said Aristotle.
Since Aristotle and long before, people who have been privileged to spend time observing and interacting with elephants have expressed similar sentiments.
They have been trained for thousands of years to do everything from play soccer to destroy the enemy on the battlefield. They were the tanks of the ancient world and the front end loaders and the tractors. Their size and strength are of course, second to none.
There are many tales and legends told about elephants, both long ago and today in many different languages and among very different cultures. What is so telling about these stories is that they don't usually go on about their incredible size and strength, because that is obvious. What they all eagerly tell of is the great intelligence, formidable memories and complex nature of these gentle giants.
Now, I have to be honest and say that when people ask me how clever a particular animal, such as a lion for example is, I usually say, "a lion is a genius at being a lion". What I am trying to say is that every animal has evolved to perfectly fit its niche and may be very dumb at doing what doesn't benefit it, and very clever at doing what does.
However, when someone asks me about Elephants, I get very excited and my little story about all animals being geniuses goes out the window. I immediately start comparing them to us. Here is why.
Like us, elephants are self-aware. This has been proven scientifically through a number of recent studies. In one study an elephant called Happy would touch a white cross painted on her forehead, a test used to test self-awareness in children. She could only see it in a mirror and understood that she was looking at a reflection of herself.
Elephants practice altruism. There is a now famous story of an Indian elephant called Chandrasekharan, who was working lifting poles off a truck as it moved along, and placing them in holes dug in the ground. When Chandrasekharan came to one hole he refused to put the log in. Eventually the Mahout checked and discovered a dog sleeping in it. Only when the dog was gone would Chandrasekharan put the pole in. This sort of behaviour is typical of elephants.
Elephants really do have long memories. Elephants eat an incredible variety of foods and need to cover large distances to get it. They need to know where to go at what time of year. They learn this and remember it. They also have complex communication and societies and so need to remember all the different individuals' voices and smells so as to be socially adept. The old saying, "an elephant never forgets" is fairly true.
This is also shown in the size and development of their brains which are proportionally 0.08 percent of their body-weight while that of a horse is 0.02 percent of its body weight. This was all figured out by a scientist called Herbert Haug. He also discovered that the brains of elephant and humans are both highly convoluted, which increases the surface area of the brain.
I once had a love hate relationship with an elephant at Fothergill Island in Zimbabwe in about 1991. Every day I would drive out the front gate and a bull elephant we called Left Hook (he had extra curve to his left tusk) would charge my vehicle. And every day I would rev my engine and bang the door and tell him to sod off and then we would go our separate ways. Every single day this happened without fail. If other vehicles came and went he would ignore them and then go for mine.
One day I went out in a different vehicle, stopped nearby and watched for a while. The wind changed, he caught my scent and of course we went through the whole noisy rigmarole again before I was allowed to leave with my by now, completely traumatized tourists.
More recently it has been found that spindle neurons play an important role in the development of intelligent behaviour. Spindle neurons are found in the brains of humans, great apes, dolphins and elephants.
There are many other behaviours exhibited by elephants such as grieving (see my answer to What non human animals grieve?), playing, mimicking producing art and using tools, all of which serve to show their flexible and powerful minds.
However, what I found most amazing is their problem-solving ability. To illustrate this, and because I risk happily waffling on forever, I will leave you with one last story:
Working Asian elephants sometimes wear wooden bells. The young elephants will deliberately stuff them with clay so that they can sneak into banana groves without being heard in order to steal as much as possible!
Elephants are being massacred daily. If you would like to help then please visit this blog Quorans For A Cause where amazing people are doing what they can to help support the rangers!
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