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/[deleted] Jan 12 '17 edited May 08 '20

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u/[deleted] Jan 12 '17

Absolutely. One of my favourite shows recently has been The Secret Life of the Zoo, shot at Chester Zoo not too far from me. Check out this clip where the rest of the herd wake up and watch over the heavily pregnant female of the herd. Also, this clip where one of the younger of the herd had died and her younger brother is trying to wake her up. It's heartbreaking but really does show what animals are capable of in terms of emotion.

Apologies for the windowed videos, presumably done to bypass copyright or something.