Inner Life of Elephants, Part 12: Causality and Mirrors

Causality--elephants remove lid to obtain food from bucket even when lid is on ground. Reaction to image of self in mirror. Part 12 of 16 segments of an elephant research film taking place in the Detroit Zoo and, mostly, in three logging camps in the Burmese jungle. The film focuses on the daily lives, logging, behavior, and cognition of Asian elephants

Category:

Pets & Animals

Tags:

• elephants;
• causality;
• lid;
• bucket;
• comprehension;
• self-image;
• mirror

[mascotasydemasbichos]

I feel sad watching this. Why are the elephants in chains? And how come this people view this as something so natural.

[veggiewarriors]

@johnnyf19

FYI, Elephants in CAPTIVITY don't have the freedom to live on their own terms. So they certainly cannot refuse to do a certain task.

Non-invasive field research also uses scientific methods without chaining the animal and forcing it to live on its keeper's terms.

Such experiments reflect a failure of creativity on the scientist's part.

[veggiewarriors]

@NormalGuyMe

But we have already gathered insights into elephant intelligence and decision makings through non-intrusive observation and study of wild elephants.

Why isn't that enough? Why do you need to train elephants to remove a lid and obtain food from a bucket to confirm they make intelligent decisions?

[NormalGuyMe]

@veggiewarriors

Right, "visibly" - Through observation and study. Which is why the fact that they 'have roamed and successfully thrived in harsh environments' (like archaebacteria) is not enough to be evident of intelligent decision making.

[veggiewarriors]

@NormalGuyMe

I think elephants are VISIBLY more physically and socially complex than archaebacteria. No rocket science there.

[NormalGuyMe]

@veggiewarriors

Well yea, but so have archaebacteria, for billions of years, even.

[veggiewarriors]

I sometimes wonder why we even need these tests. Why do we need these babies in chains to prove how intelligent they are to us, so that we can respect them?

Elephants and other animals have roamed and successfully thrived in harsh environments for thousands of years. Doesn't that require making intelligent decisions?

It's heartbreaking in a way.

[ChaseWatkins]

elephants seem to be problem solvers in their nature. maybe they could be taught that moving the lid is only conditional-based on its location relative to the bucket-if they would fix the lid to the ground and let the elephant find out that even though the lid didn't move, it can still get to the food.

maybe.

[antixkelz]

that doesn't mean they don't understand the concept. elephants are playful - they could view it as a game, with a reward for playing it lol

[moles9999]

Maybe the elephant's just thinking "If I play the fool these stupid humans will keep giving me food"?