Elephants have found individual traits
Finnish scientists were able to describe individual traits semi Asian elephants (Elephas maximus) working closely with people in logging. As reported in an article published in the journal Royal Society Open Science, the identity of the animal can be described in three dimensions: attentiveness, sociability and aggressiveness.
Personality is determined by individual behavioral characteristics inherent in the individual, and sustainable in the context of time or situation. It is believed that for the formation of personality traits an animal must have developed cognitive abilities and be social — for example, in addition to people, traits can also be found in other primates.
Among mammals a high social interaction between the individuals and people, as well as a fairly developed cognitive abilities are different elephants in the new work, the group of biologists under the leadership Mirchi Lahdenpera (Mirkka Lahdenperä) from the University of Turku has studied the traits that they have. To do this, scientists within three years interviewed the drivers of the elephants working in logging in Myanmar: there are elephants used for transporting logs. In his spare time elephants roam freely in specially designated areas (semi-free content).
Drivers provided information about the behavior of elephants 257 (150 females and 107 males). To do this, they filled out questionnaires in which they noted how often one or the other species shows a specific pattern of behavior: for example, how she is active, friendly, aggressive towards other animals or mahouts, as well as how it is characterized by frequent mood swings. Scientists have collected 690 reviews from different keepers working with elephants.