{"id":31392,"date":"2025-07-09T17:54:27","date_gmt":"2025-07-09T17:54:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=31392"},"modified":"2025-07-09T18:26:45","modified_gmt":"2025-07-09T18:26:45","slug":"how-elephants-say-they-like-them-apples","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=31392","title":{"rendered":"How Elephants Say They Like Them Apples"},"content":{"rendered":"

Researchers found that the animals are capable of using their trunks to make a range of gestures that express their intentions and wants.<\/p>\n

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Moka, an elephant in Zimbabwe who gestured with his trunk at the experimenter, blowing and signaling that he wanted apples from the tray.<\/span>Vesta Eleuteri <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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If you give an elephant an apple, she\u2019s going to want some more. But how can she get through to the nearby humans who are keeping those luscious treats away from her?<\/p>\n

After working with elephants in Zimbabwe, researchers reported that the animals are capable of making very deliberate gestures to communicate that desire for more. Their study<\/a> was published Wednesday in the journal Royal Society Open Science.<\/p>\n

In the study of the evolution of language and other forms of communication, researchers have long been interested in whether nonhuman animals use gestures. That\u2019s because gestures can reveal to what extent individuals are aware of the attention and inner state of others. Identifying creatures that use movement to elicit behavior from others can help reveal how and when, in the family tree of life, complex communication evolved.<\/p>\n

Many studies about gestures focus on primates. But elephants are another natural subject for this research because they live in groups and have elaborate social lives. Perhaps they, too, use movement to communicate.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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To understand the research, think of how humans get others to do what they want. Vesta Eleuteri, a researcher at the University of Vienna and the study\u2019s lead author, explained how she might signal to a friend non-verbally to pass her a bottle of water.<\/p>\n

\u201cI first check if you are looking at me,\u201d she said. \u201cIf you are looking at me, I might point at the bottle.\u201d After that signal, \u201cI wait for you to react. If you don\u2019t react, I persist. I might reach toward the bottle, I might wave toward the bottle. Once you give me the bottle, I stop gesturing.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Researchers found that the animals are capable of using their trunks to make a range of gestures that express their intentions and wants.Moka, an elephant in Zimbabwe who gestured with his trunk at the experimenter, blowing and signaling that he wanted apples from the tray.Vesta Eleuteri If you give an elephant an apple, she\u2019s going to want some more. But how can she get through to the nearby humans who are keeping those luscious treats away from her?After working with elephants in Zimbabwe, researchers reported that the animals are capable of making very deliberate gestures to communicate that desire for more. Their study was published Wednesday in the journal Royal Society Open Science.In the study of the evolution of language and other forms of communication, researchers have long been interested in whether nonhuman animals use gestures. That\u2019s because gestures can reveal to what extent individuals are aware of the attention and inner state of others. Identifying creatures that use movement to elicit behavior from others can help reveal how and when, in the family tree of life, complex communication evolved.Many studies about gestures focus on primates. But elephants are another natural subject for this research because they live in groups and have elaborate social lives. Perhaps they, too, use movement to communicate.To understand the research, think of how humans get others to do what they want. Vesta Eleuteri, a researcher at the University of Vienna and the study\u2019s lead author, explained how she might signal to a friend non-verbally to pass her a bottle of water.\u201cI first check if you are looking at me,\u201d she said. \u201cIf you are looking at me, I might point at the bottle.\u201d After that signal, \u201cI wait for you to react. If you don\u2019t react, I persist. I might reach toward the bottle, I might wave toward the bottle. Once you give me the bottle, I stop gesturing.\u201dWe are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and\u00a0log into\u00a0your Times account, or\u00a0subscribe\u00a0for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber?\u00a0Log in.Want all of The Times?\u00a0Subscribe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":31394,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31392","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31392","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=31392"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31392\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31395,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31392\/revisions\/31395"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/31394"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=31392"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=31392"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=31392"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}