Faced with a treat that was clearly visible, elephants managed not to give in to the action that seemed most obvious.
The experiment involved 16 Asian elephants, eight males and eight females, aged between 4 and 60 years. The animals live at the National Elephant Institute in Thailand. The researchers wanted to know whether they could restrain a spontaneous action when another strategy made it possible to reach food more efficiently.
An Asian elephant inserts its trunk into a box containing a food reward during an experiment in Thailand.
Credit: Sydney Hope.
The principle was simple. The elephants first learned to go around an opaque box, put their trunks through an opening, and retrieve a piece of fruit. They were then given a transparent box with openings at the front. The food became visible and its smell could pass through the holes, but the elephants still had to go around the box to reach it.
One might expect the animals to try to grab the fruit directly through the wall. Yet they went around the transparent box with an efficiency close to that observed with the opaque box. They therefore seemed able to suppress the direct action and use the method that worked.
The researchers remained cautious about this initial result. It is also possible that the food visible behind the wall did not create a strong enough desire to extend their trunks directly. A second experiment therefore tested a different situation, in which a previously effective habit became counterproductive.
After several trials with the opening placed on one side, the box was turned around. The former direction no longer made it possible to reach the food. The elephants then took more time to go around the obstacle, suggesting that they continued to use the learned behavior. But they quickly corrected their behavior over the following trials.
This ability is known as inhibitory control. It simply consists of suppressing a spontaneous or habitual response when another action works better. In humans, it comes into play, for example, when an automatic action must be abandoned after a change in circumstances.
Age also seems to have played a role in part of the experiment. Older animals took more time to adapt when the orientation of the box changed. The authors suggest a possible decline in certain abilities with age, without being able to establish it with certainty from this single test.
This research could go beyond the study of animal intelligence alone. Knowing how an elephant reacts to an obstacle or changes a habit can help predict its behavior near inhabited areas. The researchers particularly want to better understand these decisions in order to improve measures designed to reduce conflicts between humans and elephants.