CharonY Posted October 12, 2013 Share Posted October 12, 2013 In a series of tests, researcher Ann Smet, of the University of St Andrews, offered the animals a choice between two identical buckets, then pointed at the one containing a hidden treat. From the first trial, the elephants chose the correct bucket. "Of course we had hoped that the elephants would be able to learn to follow human pointing, or we wouldn't have done the experiment in the first place," she said. "But it was really surprising that they didn't seem to have to learn anything. "It seems that understanding pointing is an ability elephants just possess naturally and they are cognitively much more like us than has been realised." In the article it was noted that apes are bad at learning the meaning of pointing, however other research contradict this notion. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2151757/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EdEarl Posted October 12, 2013 Share Posted October 12, 2013 (edited) Dogs can learn to respond to our pointing toward things. In fact, they can understand people looking at things without pointing with a hand or finger. It is surprising that Elephants understand pointing without training. Maybe they use their trunks to point, or maybe they learn from watching their care takers, before the experiment. They are very smart. Edited October 12, 2013 by EdEarl Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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