Too reasonable: why elephants behave like humans
MOSCOW, 12 Aug — RIA Novosti, Tatiana Pichugina. People and elephants have coexisted for many tens of thousands of years. Due to climate change and intensive destruction of these large, intelligent animals have survived only in Africa and Asia. Some features of their behavior — for example, respect for deceased relatives, is unique. From whom came the elephants and why they inspire respect in the material RIA Novosti.
Capable of genuine feelings
Old Eleanor suddenly collapsed. Walked close comrade tried to lift her, but she could no longer stand on his feet and the next day died. Mourning lasted almost a week.
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Dog stole the camera and took a real blockbuster
It happened in October 2003 in Samburu national Park in Kenya among elephants living there. Scientists, observing animals from the air and using the GPS, noted that the first to help a fallen elephant came quite alien elephant. Her own family was two miles from this place. For several days the deceased was visiting close relatives and members of other herds, sniffed, touched.
Mutual aid characteristic of elephants. Scientists believe that this is proof of their intelligence. It is believed that elephants understand relatives, worry about them. Himself, by the way, they also realize.
Scientists conduct this test: put a mirror and allow the animals to look, then draw the markings on the face, and if the individual is seeing themselves in the mirror, trying to touch this mark, it means that he or she learned. Elephants pass this test successfully. In addition to them, it can only apes and humans.
Great memory and hearing
Much of the elephant is surprising. For example, a good long-term memory, the ability to store a lot of information. Probably these qualities the elephants have developed because of the need for families to travel long distances. Their herds move on six hundred miles.
During droughts elephants are dozens of kilometers away to water every few days. These forced marches are impossible without experimental animals in the herd. If the group consists only of young females, most likely they will die of thirst.
Elephants have well developed hearing. They recognize the call at a distance of half a kilometer. And distinguish up to a hundred different voices of relatives on the slightest of acoustic vibrations.
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For fragrant labels elephants identificeret another individual, even if the last time she met ten years ago. Males studying the urine of females with flamina typical retraction of a liquid with the lips. Taken to test is sent in the vomeronasal organ, where it is analyzed. Mature elephants can remember the smell of the mother for decades and thus avoid inbreeding.
If necessary, elephants use tools. Even Darwin described how they distilled the branches of the flies. Scratched with sticks, throwing stones at rodents, competing with them for the fruits under the trees. But to pick up throw them over the bridge the rope to get the food, you can’t. Do not guess to take a stick to knock off the platform food, if you can’t get her trunk. In General, the cognitive abilities of elephants is clearly inferior to the chimpanzee and people. They are not very good binocular vision and, apparently, low vigilance.
But elephants live in families almost like we. The herd was comprised only of females of different ages, which together raise young. Mature males are expelled from the family and live independently or gather in male groups.
Recognizable features of the behavior, large size and life expectancy in nature to 70 years of age, a long period of raising offspring — it makes you want to anthropomorphize the elephants. No wonder the people of Nuer in South Africa considers elephant as an individual, his death equate to the death of a person. Nuer believe that people and elephants — a family and with Pets there is a mystical connection. Humanization of an elephant led to the emergence of the taboo on eating its meat in some traditional societies.
And scientists themselves susceptible to this: they have invented a science that studies the relationship between people and elephants — tolerantly.