How Intelligent do you think Elephants really are?

[JG26Irish_2]

As an interested party, I want to ask of you the wise followers of this forum. In your experience, how intelligent do you think Elephants really are? I am currently reading a book entitled "West with the Night", by Beryl Markham a remarkable lady who was born and lived in Kenya, in British East Africa about 1902. She grew up hunting lions and warthogs with spears with her native friends and by the time she was 18yrs old was a recognized trainer of champion Thoroughbred race horses. She hunted on Safari with the Baron Von Blixen of "Out of Africa" fame and was a friend to Blix's wife Karen. Later in life, she became one of if not the first female pilot in Africa and flew cargo and people all over the continent. She was the first pilot to successfully fly in search of elephants supporting safaris. The idea for which was first formed by Denys Finch Hatton, who died in his first attempt to try such a thing. Later, she was the first pilot to fly across the Atlantic from East to West only a few years after Lindberg did it from West to East.

In Beryls' book she opines that in her view Elephants were as intelligent as humans and she cites a number of examples of elephant behavior which supports her claim. I know next to nothing about Elephants or their behavior, but am a firm believer that animals in general are more social and intelligent than we haughty humans are led to believe, possessing language skills, and sentient abilities that we do not understand. A few examples below for your consideration:

1. A well known story in South Africa from the natives is that you should never speak out loud in the morning which quarry you plan to hunt on Safari each day. Why? It is because the Monkeys and the Birds are always spying on you the human hunters and when they hear of your hunting plans the Monkeys tell the Birds and the Birds fly forth and warn the animals that predators are coming. They do the same to the lion and the leopards. Witness the "Go-Away" Birds in Africa.
2. Zebra and Wildebeest, I have personally witnessed that they behave differently to me when I am hunting them as opposed to the days when I am not hunting them. They either can sense when I have malice toward them or the birds told them.
3. When my daughter was a young lady of about 12yrs old, she had a dog. It was a Bichon Frise. These are very intelligent dogs and were popular with pirates as early alert warning systems. Her little fuzzy Bichon would sit quietly in our home while my daughter was away at school each weekday but about 10min before the school bus was due to arrive, the dog would climb to the back of our sofa and stare at the door waiting for my daughter to arrive. She knew it was time. When the bus was about 1/2mi away, she would get excited, wagging her tail in anticipation as if she could sense . When the bus stopped outside our house, the dog would run to the door and meet my daughter to greet her return.

I have heard many stories about Elephants having long memories and how they will move to find water or food, and take steps to protect one another. I have doubts that they are as intellectual as humans but do think they may be one of the more intelligent examples of the animal kingdom. Some of us on this forum have encountered ele in the field while hunting them or other game as well as PH's who have seen them much more often.

What do you think? How intelligent are Elephants? Compared to an average human? 80%?, more?, less? On a scale of 0-100 with the average (not Einstein) human being scored as 100 and a rock scored as zero, where would the Elephant score?

 

[318AE]

I think they’re smart enough to know a well placed shot from a 375 is quite lethal, which seems to make them more intelligent than some humans.

 

[Hunt anything]

Interesting question they are definitely very intelligent!
Honestly I try not to put human emotions into animals, clearly some animals have human attributes such as mourning and excitement and do comprehend some logic. I’ve heard stories of animals mainly elephant that can discern the difference in scent of a white hunter and a black native.

One old surly cow elephant in Mozambique definitely hated humans, she had every right to, an old chunk of lead obviously shot from an old muzzle loader was in her left tusk socket. The tusk eventually fell out and was filled with puss. She exacted her revenge on an old native lady and her boma.

I would put elephant around an 85 but some humans are at 0 no smarter than the dumbest rock!

 

[RLD]

Intelligence is a very difficult thing to measure and put a number on in any context. Comparing between species is very speculative.

Intelligence is not a single measurement but appears in types or categories that usually need to be looked at separately.

 

[bowjijohn]

Elephants are smarter than me

However that isn’t difficult

J

 

[Hunter-Habib]

Elephants are extremely intelligent and retain long memories. Yet their ability to sublimate instinct is still lower than man. Just like human beings, some elephants love their young. While others mistreat them or ignore them.

I have personally witnessed a an Asiatic jungle cow elephant casually walking about; apparently without noticing that her calf was uprooting a small tree sapling for eating, When the calf had finished uprooting the sapling, the cow casually took the sapling from her calf & began to feed… completely ignoring her calf’s cries of frustration. It then occurred to me & my beat officers that the cow elephant was patiently waiting for the cow elephant to do all of the hard work before she “Commandeered” the easy snack.

I have also seen cow elephants aggressively reject their own calves by pushing them away.

But elephants can also be extremely compassionate creatures. During the elephant culling programs in Rhodesia/Zimbabwe in the 1970s & 1980s, several cow elephants in herds died while forming a protective ring around their calves… in an attempt to shield the calves from the culler’s bullets with their own bodies.

When I shot this bull in 1982, I had dropped him on the spot with a single side brain shot. I had observed other elephants in the herd attempt to get him back up on his feet with their tusks. We had to fire a few shots into the air, in order to finally drive them away.

 

[Tally-Ho HUNTING SAFARIS]

there was only down to 20%
i believe less than that

 

[GuttormG]

Intelligence like we assume humans has? 0%
Ability to use all their senses and memory to survive-better than 99% of humans.

 

[Rifleman97]

I think it's easy to forget how smart animals are and how similar we are to them. Genetically, we are only 1-2% different than one of the species of monkeys. While none of those monkeys could take trigonometry, theres been a number of apes/monkeys that have learned sign language to communicate with real words, and crows have been proven to be able to think as far as 3-4 steps ahead in a problem solving situation, something many adult humans cannot do, and solve puzzles the average 6-7 year old struggles with.

Elephants have also been shown to have the same brain chemicals released when they look at humans, as humans release when we look at puppies. This study was done on elephants which were never hunted by humans, so your average wild elephant probably sees humans as a threat, but it goes to show they're capable of empathy towards another species to some extent. They're also very trainable, etc etc

I think they're some of the most intelligent animals on earth, but still a lot less than a human. Just like the smartest monkey is probably not going to surpass the dumbest (non physically disabled from brain damage/etc) human, the smartest elephant will also not be smarter than the dumbest human. But I personally find them intelligent enough to respect greatly, similar to Octopus, Ravens, Crows, Parrots.

Given your 0 intelligence is that of a rock, I would say they're more than halfway to humans, but not close enough to worry about. My arbitrary guess is 60-70% based on your scale

 

[K-man]

It is a matter of rating intelligence. Experience and instincts passed down from generations is not the same as intelligence. They are inquisitive and loyal to the family and alter their environment but that's not intelligence. Few animals live 40+ years so the combination of family and instinct makes them appear intelligent.

 

[thriller]

I don’t agree with comparing animals like elephants or any other species to humans. Personification does no good and is a useless exercise. Wild animals are good at using their senses to survive and do have long memories, but the compare that to humans and civilization building is a little too much what I call disneyfication for me.

 

[Flbt]

I hate to say it because it’s a non answer.
With living animals and humans it depends on the individual.
I have had a horse that if allowed would eat her self to death and a 1/2 sister to her that could un latch the gates to the round pen
And un tie knots of her lead rope.
1/2 sisters but very different mentally

 

[pilar]

They are smart enough to conspire with witch doctors out in the bush, or so I’ve been told

 

[Mark A Ouellette]

As others stated, elephants think or process different than do humans.
Here are some videos by those who study elephants' brains and intelligence.

 

[DLSJR]

Elephants are very smart. It’s tough to give them an accurate percentage though, because while they’re May only be 50-60% as intelligent as some of us, I believe they’re probably around 70-80% as intelligent compared to us as a whole. But, when you compare elephants to liberals and animal rights idiots, elephants are smarter by a factor of 10x!

 

[fourfive8]

Hard to assign a percentage or relative IQ. But IMO certainly ranked really high in the non-human animal world. I’ve seen them do things that leave me shaking my head, things that require abstract thinking.

 

[foxtrot1]

 

[Wheels]

I have shared the following story before but figure it fits well here


There was once an elephant trail that connected the greater Ruaha ecosystem to the low lands at the north end of Lake Malawi. The trail ascended the Eldon Plateau near Chimala before dropping off the Plateau and into the lowlands.

By the end of WWII, patchwork farms had plowed under much of the trail on the plateau. Old timers remember the last elephants to ascend the trail were around 1953. The elephants got lost or were driven off and returned to the Usangu Flats, part of the Ruaha ecosystem.

In the late 1950’s or early 1960’s, a road, was built connecting Chimala to Matamba on top of the plateau. The road was called Hamsini na Saba for the 57 switchbacks.

In the late 1960’s through the early 1980’s, Tanzania had the socialist policy of Ujamaa, which moved families and villages from the bush to within a few miles of major roads to be able to better “help” the people. With this influx of people and new shambas along the Great North Road, elephants were driven further out onto the Usangu.

By the early 1960’s, elephants would no longer go to the base of the plateau and stayed north of the Great North Road. By 1970, elephants were no longer raiding farms near Chimala.

Around 1985, people were surprised to wake up and find a matriarch with her family at Chimala. The herd had wondered through fields at night to reach the base of the escarpment. She looked around for a few hours but couldn’t find the old trail. She did however find the road. Vehicles coming down moved as far as they could out of the herd’s way. Vehicles going up stayed a reasonable distance behind. The matriarch and her family arrived atop the plateau to people who had never seen an elephant before, even though they lived only 30 miles from elephants. The elephants were a novelty and were encouraged to leave the gardens but not really harassed.

The Grand Old Dame wondered around searching for the trail that had been plowed under by patchwork farmers countless times. After a day or two she and her family were shooed off the Plateau and into the Ruaha River valley a few miles to the east.

What deep internal compass and sense of being made this great lady lead her family through farms and potential danger, to find a trail she hadn’t been on for over thirty years? Was her time at an end and this was her last chance to pass on a lesson to her daughters and granddaughters? Why was this bit of knowledge more important than the family’s safety?

I have no answers. Only questions.

I do continue to stand in awe of these amazing creatures.

 

[62flint]

I think it's easy to forget how smart animals are and how similar we are to them. Genetically, we are only 1-2% different than one of the species of monkeys. While none of those monkeys could take trigonometry,

Hell, I cant do algabra much less trig. What thats say about me....
I am hurt. lol

 

[Altitude sickness]

My opinion is elephants eventually gain knowledge through experience gained from living long lives. Then pass that knowledge along to younger members. They are more intelligent than many animals but I think the cumulative age of a herd makes them store more knowledge than most species.

they have great memories and herd instincts. They are long lived to pass along a lot of learned behaviors.

Navigating long distances is not intelligence. That is common to many species. Mountain animals are led to water and winter grounds by the matriarch of that group also. Birds, bats, butterflies all navigate further distances than elephants.

Many touched on the real point. What is intelligence? is it intelligent for humans to build things that will eventually destroy the species. In that sense a toad is more intelligent.

Is it intelligent to keep breeding until your herd is to large destroying your surrounding habitat?

I do believe they are more intelligent than many animals and birds.