[HN Gopher] Wild elephants may have names that other elephants u...
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Wild elephants may have names that other elephants use to call them
Author : hackernj
Score : 91 points
Date : 2024-06-10 22:40 UTC (2 days ago)
(HTM) web link (www.npr.org)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.npr.org)
| DEADMINCE wrote:
| Elephants are one of the smartest animals, possessing self-
| awareness and metacognition, an extreme rarity in the animal
| kingdom. They are one of the few species to make art and mourn
| and bury their dead. That they have unique identifiers is not a
| surprise at all.
| JumpCrisscross wrote:
| > _one of the few species to make art_
|
| Source?
| defrost wrote:
| They're also one of the few species to build roads and
| bridges.
|
| I suspect the quiet part of the three assertions is "under
| human supervision".
|
| You can certainly visit various zoos and purchase art by
| elephants and watch them paint with brushes on large
| canvases.
|
| Typically less dense than a Jackson Pollack and less use of
| spaghetti than a Pro Hart* carpet.
|
| ( * https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8qb4n8yc2so )
| ab5tract wrote:
| Fun fact: Bison created deep, wide grooves in the plains
| and prairies that were subsequently used by the settlers
| moving west in their wagons.
| pvaldes wrote:
| Assuming that the videos are real, elephants on zoos had
| being recorded painting scenes on canvasses that aren't
| completely abstract. They are trained to paint to please
| visitors, but curiously they seem to enjoy drawing trees.
|
| Is not clear to me if they just parrot the training or really
| try to send a message or draw some scene that they find
| instinctively pleasant. (but wouldn't be strange having in
| mind their intelligence).
| Log_out_ wrote:
| How do they react to complex reveals? Google earth + ZOOM on a
| tablet? A video of evolutionary development and history?
| Log_out_ wrote:
| Why is that controversial, the ability to recognize a map and
| handle the revealed absteaction via a zoom slider is a great
| tool to observe cognitive flexibility..
| g15jv2dp wrote:
| Show a human from 300 AD a tablet with google earth and
| zoom, and they'd have no idea wtf is going on. It's not
| about intelligence.
| Log_out_ wrote:
| They can recognize the surroundings, move to places they
| visited on the "magic" map and display curiosity towards
| the wider world and its shape.
| bitwize wrote:
| This is not surprising to me; dolphins and crows do as well. I've
| come to expect it from any creature at or near human-level
| intelligence.
| alexb23 wrote:
| What's very remarkable is that elephants like human seem to
| invent abstract names; other animals like dolphins mimic the
| signature sound of another to attract their attention.
| 082349872349872 wrote:
| As a precursor to Animal Farm, Kipling's
| https://www.kiplingsociety.co.uk/tale/her-majestys-
| servants.... (1894) features a number of animals caught up in
| state bureaucracy.
|
| The other animals have nicknamed the elephant "Two Tails",
| and it explains that it is afraid in battle because it can
| think about what happens when a shell bursts, and ruminates
| upon whether it might not be better off back at home in the
| forest rather than here in the army...
| riffic wrote:
| darwin himself said the difference of mind between humans and
| higher animals is one of degree, not kind.
| neonate wrote:
| https://www.nature.com/articles/s41559-024-02420-w
| wtarreau wrote:
| Not surprised. These animals are fascinating. We're not even sure
| we have caught everything from their language; maybe it's not
| just sound-based, and the way they shake their trump and ears or
| they dance counts a lot as well. I've long wondered if some of
| them developed some religions or even if they've overcome this
| need, reserving it to humans only.
|
| Another study already showed that some monkeys have vocal words
| to designate a tiger and an eagle and use that to make all the
| group go up or down in the tree depending where the threat comes
| from. Elephants being more complex animals also living in groups
| are quite likely to have an even more elaborated language.
| baby wrote:
| How many animals have human-level language? The only I'm aware
| are these monkeys that were taught how to sign
| ajb wrote:
| If you're taking about Koko the gorilla, that one is
| controversial. Look up Alex the parrot (Irene Pepperberg),
| which has a decent evidence base
| lacker wrote:
| I wonder if they have "two-word sentences", sequences of calls
| that mean something particular in context. Like "Bob, eat!" or
| "Mom, help!".
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