Phuket Elephant Sanctuary, the only ethical elephant camp on the island. Courtesy Phuket Elephant Sanctuary
Phuket Elephant Sanctuary, the only ethical elephant camp on the island. Courtesy Phuket Elephant Sanctuary
Phuket Elephant Sanctuary, the only ethical elephant camp on the island. Courtesy Phuket Elephant Sanctuary
Phuket Elephant Sanctuary, the only ethical elephant camp on the island. Courtesy Phuket Elephant Sanctuary

Elephant in the room: are animals far cleverer than humans like to think?


  • English
  • Arabic

An elephant that can count or a dog that can foretell a disaster would once have been the topic of fiction or a circus attraction, but now they are the focus of scientific interest and their abilities appear to be genuine.

For millennia, the lowly status of animals ensured that any suggestion they had human-like abilities got short shrift. Yet attitudes towards animals have changed, and so has the willingness of scientists to take claims of gifted animals seriously.

Recently, an elephant named Authai has been making headlines because of her apparent ability to count.

Shown computer images of collections of objects, she was able to work out which showed the most objects around two-thirds of the time.

According to the Japanese researchers behind the study, the time Authai needed to reach her answer depended on the number of objects — suggesting she really was counting them — a trait once thought unique to humans.

Meanwhile, a species of crow continues to wow scientists with its ingenuity.

In 2002, a New Caledonian crow named Betty became world-famous because she appeared to bend garden wire into hooked tools to get food out of a trap. The same species of crows have since been observed making hooks to catch fish, and then keeping their inventions safe for re-use.

Now scientists have witnessed the crows going to the next level, creating tools with several parts.

The intelligence of dogs is well established, but some of their other four-legged friends are much smarter than originally thought. AFP
The intelligence of dogs is well established, but some of their other four-legged friends are much smarter than originally thought. AFP

Faced with out of reach food, they picked up sticks supplied by researchers, only to find they were not long enough. So the crows looked around and noticed straws into which their sticks could fit, giving them extra reach.

Carefully sliding the sticks into the straws, the crows then returned to their task, and managed to flick the food out of the container.

Amazed, the researchers decided to make the task even harder, giving them ever shorter sticks to work with. One of the eight crows in the experiment went as far as creating a four-part tool consisting of two sticks and two straws.

The researchers, from the Max Planck Institute for Ornithology, Germany, and the University of Oxford, admit they don’t know why the crows are so ingenious. They suspect they mentally visualise the tools being put together — though this has yet to be proven.

It suggests we humans still have much to learn about the abilities of other animals. And nowhere is this more apparent than in research into their ability to detect ill-health and even foretell disasters.

Malaria has just become the latest human disease that dogs are thought to be able to diagnose. Their noses, crammed with incredibly sensitive scent-detecting cells, can detect molecules in concentrations up to 100 million times weaker than humans can.

A team of researchers led by Professor Steven Lindsay of Durham University has trained dogs to detect the molecules in the socks of children infected by malaria. In tests, the dogs proved capable of correctly detecting the disease in around 70 per cent of cases, even in those with no outward signs of the disease.

Funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, research into the method — which is quick and non-invasive — is seen as important to eradicating the disease.

_______________

Read more from Science:

New technology set to revolutionise keeping buildings cool

Why more couples are choosing pets over children — and the impact if could have on their health

_______________

A recent review in the Journal of Veterinary Behaviour found impressive evidence of the ability of trained dogs to detect lung, ovarian and prostate cancer, too, by sniffing body fluid samples.

But their superpowers don’t end there — animals are also thought to be able to detect disasters. Reports of animals fleeing the scene of an impending earthquake date back to Ancient Greece and anecdotes persist to this day.

Following the devastating Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami of 2004, reports emerged of elephants and other animals moving to higher ground before disaster struck. Such anecdotes may have some basis in genuine ability — in 1997, scientists at the University of California reported that elephants can detect the stomping of others over distances of 50 kilometres or more. Such sensitivity may allow them to detect so-called foreshocks, which often presage major earthquakes.

This year, a scientific review of past reports confirmed that such a link does appear to exist, but the evidence remains patchy.

Given the potential benefits, researchers are starting to follow up such anecdotes. Another team of scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Ornithology is currently tracking thousands of electronically tagged birds to see if they behave differently in the run-up to earthquakes or volcanic eruptions.

Despite such developments, many scientists remain sceptical about the superpowers of animals. But simply dismissing the idea out of hand is increasingly looking bird-brained.

Robert Matthews is Visiting Professor of Science at Aston University, Birmingham, UK

Six things you need to know about UAE Women’s Special Olympics football team

Several girls started playing football at age four

They describe sport as their passion

The girls don’t dwell on their condition

They just say they may need to work a little harder than others

When not in training, they play football with their brothers and sisters

The girls want to inspire others to join the UAE Special Olympics teams

WOMAN AND CHILD

Director: Saeed Roustaee

Starring: Parinaz Izadyar, Payman Maadi

Rating: 4/5

Specs

Engine: Duel electric motors
Power: 659hp
Torque: 1075Nm
On sale: Available for pre-order now
Price: On request

It's Monty Python's Crashing Rocket Circus

To the theme tune of the famous zany British comedy TV show, SpaceX has shown exactly what can go wrong when you try to land a rocket.

The two minute video posted on YouTube is a compilation of crashes and explosion as the company, created by billionaire Elon Musk, refined the technique of reusable space flight.

SpaceX is able to land its rockets on land  once they have completed the first stage of their mission, and is able to resuse them multiple times - a first for space flight.

But as the video, How Not to Land an Orbital Rocket Booster, demonstrates, it was a case if you fail, try and try again.

T20 SQUADS

Australia: Aaron Finch (c), Mitchell Marsh, Alex Carey, Ashton Agar, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Chris Lynn, Nathan Lyon, Glenn Maxwell, Ben McDermott, D’Arcy Short, Billy Stanlake, Mitchell Starc, Andrew Tye, Adam Zampa.

Pakistan: Sarfraz Ahmed (c), Fakhar Zaman, Mohammad Hafeez, Sahibzada Farhan, Babar Azam, Shoaib Malik, Asif Ali, Hussain Talat, Shadab Khan, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Usman Khan Shinwari, Hassan Ali, Imad Wasim, Waqas Maqsood, Faheem Ashraf.

UK-EU trade at a glance

EU fishing vessels guaranteed access to UK waters for 12 years

Co-operation on security initiatives and procurement of defence products

Youth experience scheme to work, study or volunteer in UK and EU countries

Smoother border management with use of e-gates

Cutting red tape on import and export of food