How brainy elephants are nearly as clever as us: Animals may be only creature capable of realising that pointing at something means it is of interest

The old adage is that they never forget. But elephants are also quick to get the point.
A study found that the jungle giants instinctively understand what pointing means.
While this may not seem surprising, they may be the only animal capable of the feat. Even chimps struggle to understand that something that is being pointed at is of interest. 

A study found that Elephants instinctively understand what pointing means

The St Andrews University researchers said this suggests elephants are more on our wavelength than we realise. 
It could also help explain why the animals have long been used in tasks such as logging, despite their size and the potential danger they pose.  

Researcher Professor Richard Byrne said: ‘What elephants share with humans is that they live in an elaborate and complex network in which support, empathy, and help for others are critical for survival.’

The professor studied whether African elephants used to give tourists rides near the Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe would choose to check out a bucket that was being pointed to or a second one a few feet away.
They chose the correct bucket almost 70 per cent of the time – significantly more than chance.
The result couldn’t be explained by the animals being used to being around people, as the safari guides use spoken rather than visual commands to control them.
What is more, they were as good at the task the first time they tried at as the last, suggesting they ability to understand pointing is innate rather than learnt.
Co-researcher Anna Smet (CORR) said: ‘Of course, we always hoped that our elephants would be able to learn to follow human pointing, or we’d not have carried out the experiments.
‘What really surprised us is that they did not apparently need to learn anything.’
Writing in the journal Current Biology, the team said that the animals may make the gesture themselves, by ‘pointing’ with their trunks.  
No other wild animal is known to instinctively understand pointing and the only other creature that might be able to is the pet dog.  However, it might simply learn what the gesture means.

The St Andrews University researchers said this suggests elephants are more on our wavelength than we realise

Professor Byrne added: ‘When people want to direct the attention of others, they will naturally do so by pointing, starting from a very young age.
‘Pointing is the most immediate and direct way that humans have for controlling others’ attention.  
‘By showing that African elephants spontaneously understand human pointing, without any training we have shown that the ability to understand pointing is not uniquely human but has also evolved in a lineage of animal very remote from the primates.
‘Elephants are cognitively much more like us than has been realised, making them able to understand our characteristic way of indicating things in the environment by pointing.