Capacity For Brain Growth: Elephant Intelligence
Written by: Andrew Keet
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Word Count: 347 |
Date: Sat, 15 Aug 2009 |
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Whether it is true an elephant never forgets may be open to argument, but it is true that elephants are generally regarded to be among the world's smarter beasts. In fact,elephant intelligence ranks very strongly with that of the higher mammals.
Elephants, for example, exhibit many behaviors typically deemed "intelligent" including memory recall, the use of tools, altruism, compassion, self-awareness, and language complexity. These go along with an uncanny problem solving ability. In addition, there is physical evidence that suggests elephant's brainpower may be more substantial than previously thought.
One measure of intelligence is sheer brain mass. For adult elephants, the average weight of an elephant brain is around eleven pounds. This chunk of processing power places the elephant at the top of the list of all land animals.
An alternative and perhaps more accurate way of judging intelligence is to compare a mammal's brain weight at birth with its brain weight as a fully developed adult. This measure is indicative of its level of learning potential. This is important because elephants, like humans, are not born with a full set of survival instincts. In other words, they must learn survival behaviors as they grow up. Having a large capacity to learn as they grow is important.
So where do elephants fit in on the learning potential scale of higher mammals? Human neonatal brains weigh roughly 28% of their fully developed adult weight. For Bottle-nosed dolphins the figure is 42. 5% of adult brain weight and for chimpanzees the figure is 54%. For most mammals, birth brain weight is approximately 90% of adult brain weight. And for the elephant? The corresponding figure is 35%, suggesting a high capacity for learned behaviors.
With this evidence elephants, along with their well-known predilection to problem solving, have engendered new assessments of their overall intelligence. It is now accepted in certain circles that pachyderm intelligence rates as high if not higher than that of dolphins and some whales. This comes as no surprise to people around the world who work with these intelligent and sensitive beasts.
About the Author
Elephants have long been a passion of Andrew Keet who stays in South Africa and is particularly fascinated by elephant intelligence.
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