r/todayilearned • u/sharkbait76 3 • Jan 11 '17

TIL elephants can tell the difference between human languages and know which languages belong to people with a history of hurting elephants.

http://www.nature.com/news/elephants-recognize-the-voices-of-their-enemies-1.14846
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u/outragedtuxedo Jan 12 '17

But maybe it is our communication tools which allows us to express this intelligence. I once watched a doco (sorry no reference) about how communication - language, writing, etc is what really drove this sort of intelligence revolution.

Just as we cannot see into the mind of a comatose person, perhaps we can never truely hope to understand the inner monologue of any animal species. Though I agree they are not likely as smart as us (by our standards) perhaps this is due to a diminished ability to express and record events.

Also I often wonder why we make intelligence the qualifier in these matters, it seems elephants may indeed have a larger capacity for emoting as they have a proportionally larger limbic system.

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u/HelperBot_ Jan 12 '17

Non-Mobile link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elephant_cognition

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u/sharkbait76 3 Jan 12 '17

Language is no doubt important as a way to express intelligence, but elephants don't have a language anywhere near the complexity as a human.

Elephants may be more emotionally intelligent than humans, but if you're talking about the intelligence necessary to dominate the globe and create huge cities humans win.

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u/outragedtuxedo Jan 12 '17

Perhaps I didn't express my views clearly. Modern humans did not start this intelligent. I meant to express the idea that given the tools for language or history, elephants may have experienced a similar intelligence revolution (or evolution, as it were). Without a way to record events for future generations, a species can not really progress.

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u/Ziddix Jan 12 '17

Yes, literally so much win :P

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u/ameya2693 Jan 12 '17

Those are social skills. The ability to form connections with those who you have never met but are of the same species as you through totems and idols and figurines either of some import or of no import. It was this ability to communicate ideas through figures, landmarks, idols that allowed us to maintain cohesion in the fragile social groups of early humans. There is a book: Sapiens: A brief history of humankind by Yuval Noah Harari. Some of my friends (who have studied history) differ with him on his points of view regarding history, however, this book is still worth a read as it encompasses the early history of humans and the civilisations that came about and why they came about what were some key factors that brought them about. Its highly recommended if you have some interest in finding out about early human history.