Social learning in captive African elephants (Loxodonta africana africana)

• Published in: Animal cognition Vol. 16; no. 3; pp. 459 - 469
• Main Authors: Greco, Brian J., Brown, Tracey K., Andrews, Jeff R. M., Swaisgood, Ronald R., Caine, Nancy G.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Berlin/Heidelberg Springer-Verlag 01.05.2013; Springer; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Animal cognition; Animal ethology; Animal memory; Animal populations; Animals; Behavioral Sciences; Biological and medical sciences; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Elephantidae; Elephants; Elephants - psychology; Female; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Imitative Behavior; Learning; Life Sciences; Loxodonta africana africana; Mammalia; Original Paper; Psychology Research; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Social Behavior; Vertebrata; Zoology; Social learning; Elephants; Imitation; Animal cognition; Proboscidea; Loxodonta africana; Loxodonta; Cognition; Vertebrata; Mammalia; Acquisition process; Captivity; Ungulata
• ISSN: 1435-9448; 1435-9456
• DOI: 10.1007/s10071-012-0586-7

Social learning is a more efficient method of information acquisition and application than trial and error learning and is prevalent across a variety of animal taxa. Social learning is assumed to be important for elephants, but evidence in support of that claim is mostly anecdotal. Using a herd of six adult female African bush elephants ( Loxodonta africana africana ) at the San Diego Zoo’s Safari Park, we evaluated whether viewing a conspecific’s interactions facilitated learning of a novel task. The tasks used feeding apparatus that could be solved in one of two distinct ways. Contrary to our hypothesis, the method the demonstrating animal used did not predict the method used by the observer. However, we did find evidence of social learning: After watching the model, subjects spent a greater percentage of their time interacting with the apparatus than they did in unmodeled trials. These results suggest that the demonstrations of a model may increase the motivation of elephants to explore novel foraging tasks.