Elephants Understand Meaning of Pointing at Something Without Training

Elephants innately understand the purpose of pointing -- a trait not found in many great apes.

The discovery is evidence that the ability to understand pointing is "not uniquely human but has also evolved in a lineage of animal very remote from the primates," explains Richard Byrne of the University of St Andrews.

Elephants are members of an ancient African radiation of animals that includes the hyrax, golden mole, aardvark and manatee.

The study looked at elephants that worked taking tourists on rides near Victoria Falls. Though trained to follow vocal commands, the animals were not accustomed to pointing, the researchers said.

"Of course, we always hoped that our elephants would be able to learn to follow human pointing, or we'd not have carried out the experiments," first author of the study Anna Smet said in a statement. "What really surprised us is that they did not apparently need to learn anything. Their understanding was as good on the first trial as the last, and we could find no sign of learning over the experiment."

In fact, the researchers found no difference when it came to pointing in those animals raised in captivity versus those brought in from the wild.

While elephants make trunk gestures, scientists are still unsure whether they represent the elephant equilvalent of pointing.

"What elephants share with humans is that they live in an elaborate and complex network in which support, empathy, and help for others are critical for survival," Byrne said. "It may be only in such a society that the ability to follow pointing has adaptive value, or, more generally, elephant society may have selected for an ability to understand when others are trying to communicate with them, and they are thus able to work out what pointing is about when they see it."

The study was published in the journal Current Biology.