| | | Elephants have been trying to communicate with humans for years.
Elephants can use intentional, goal-directed gestures—like humans do—not just randomly. In semi-captive contexts, they've been seen gesturing to request items. While experts suspect similar behaviors in the wild, rigorous evidence is forthcoming.
Previous studies showed that elephants use complex multimodal communication in greeting rituals, combining visual, acoustic, tactile, and chemical signals. They even appear to tailor gestures based on whether the recipient is looking, implying awareness of others’ perspectives .
Elephants have also been shown to understand human pointing spontaneously, without training—evidence of advanced social cognition .
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independent.co.uk |
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