Intelligent animals will remember past injustices and occasionally they fight back. The three modern species of elephants fall into this category.
African Elephants
- The African Forest Elephant (Loxodonta cyclotis) was once thought to be a subspecies of the African Bush Elephant (Loxodonta africana), but DNA studies have shown it to be a separate species. The forest elephant with its hard pinkish ivory was hunted to critically low population numbers in the past, but conservation efforts seem to be working – it is now listed as a ‘vulnerable’ species (which is somewhat better!).
- The African Bush Elephant (Loxodonta africana), often known simply as the ‘African Elephant’, lives on the savannah. In 1970 there were more than 300,000, but only around 10,000 remain. This species is ‘near threatened’.
- There was once a ‘North African Elephant’, which might have been a separate species, or maybe a subspecies of the ‘African Bush Elephant’. This was the animal that Hannibal used when crossing the Alps. It became extinct around the second century AD.
- Pygmy Elephants are claimed by some to inhabit the Congo basin, but so little is known about them that ‘the jury is out’ – they might be a separate species (Loxodonta pumilio), or they might be stunted forest elephants.
- The Indian Elephant (Elephas maximus indicus) is one of four subspecies of the Asian Elephant (Elephas maximus).
- The other three are; the Sri Lankan Elephant (Elephas maximus maximus), the Sumatran Elephant (Elephas maximus sumatranus), and the Borneo Elephant (Elephas maximus borneensis).
- The Asian Elephant, all four subspecies, is classified as an ‘endangered species’. Only around 45,000 survive in the wild, but there are many in captivity. They are used to shift heavy loads – particularly felled trees.
Elephant Evolution
Around 40 million years ago the ancestors of modern elephants (order Proboscidae) had an aquatic lifestyle, something like the modern hippopotamus (order Artiodactyla). They are closely related to the sea cows (dugongs and manatees of the order Sirenia), and more distantly to the hyraxes (order Hyracoidea).
This aquatic ancestry is interesting, because the elephants share their exceptionally high intelligence with the whales (and, of course, the apes). Perhaps there is something about a secondary life in water which fosters brain development? (See ‘Aquatic Ape Theories’).
Elephant Intelligence
Elephants pass the ‘mirror self recognition test’ – that is to say that they can respond to marks on their body (by touching them) when these marks can only be seen by looking in a mirror. This shows that the animal possesses ‘self-awareness’. The only other mammals known to have this awareness so far are the apes and Bottlenose Dolphin (other whales have not been tested).
Elephants Communication
Intelligent animals that are self-aware communicate with one-another. Elephants use sound, both as high-pitched squeals and grunts (audible to humans), and as low pitched infrasounds (15–35 Hz, inaudible to humans).
Infrasounds pass through the ground as well as the atmosphere, and they can be felt through the feet over long distances of up to 10 kilometres.
Elephant Anger
There are several well-documented cases where captive elephants have become very upset about something and deliberately killed their keeper.
In 1916 an Asian elephant (Mary) got angry when her new keeper prodded her behind the ear while she was reaching down for a bit of watermelon. She threw him to the ground and stamped on his head. He died instantly, and she was hanged for it!
Wild elephants in Africa have deliberately attacked human villages, and this is thought to have been in revenge for the damage humans caused in the 1970s and 80s.
Elephants have long memories!
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