Book contents
- The Cambridge Handbook of Animal Cognition
- The Cambridge Handbook of Animal Cognition
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Figures, Tables, and Boxes
- Contributors
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- Part I Communication and Language
- Part II Memory and Recall
- Part III Social Cognition
- 11 Social Cognition Overview
- 12 Proximate and Ultimate Mechanisms of Cooperation in Fishes
- 13 Evolutionary and Neural Bases of the Sense of Animacy
- 14 Raven Social Cognition and Behavior
- 15 Reciprocal cooperation – Norway rats (Rattus norvegicus) as an example
- 16 Exploring the Social Minds of Elephants
- 17 Dolphin Social Cognition
- 18 Mirror Self-Recognition
- Part IV Social Learning and Teaching
- Part V Numerical and Quantitative Abilities
- Part VI Innovation and Problem-Solving
- Index
- References
16 - Exploring the Social Minds of Elephants
from Part III - Social Cognition
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 July 2021
Book contents
- The Cambridge Handbook of Animal Cognition
- The Cambridge Handbook of Animal Cognition
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Figures, Tables, and Boxes
- Contributors
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- Part I Communication and Language
- Part II Memory and Recall
- Part III Social Cognition
- 11 Social Cognition Overview
- 12 Proximate and Ultimate Mechanisms of Cooperation in Fishes
- 13 Evolutionary and Neural Bases of the Sense of Animacy
- 14 Raven Social Cognition and Behavior
- 15 Reciprocal cooperation – Norway rats (Rattus norvegicus) as an example
- 16 Exploring the Social Minds of Elephants
- 17 Dolphin Social Cognition
- 18 Mirror Self-Recognition
- Part IV Social Learning and Teaching
- Part V Numerical and Quantitative Abilities
- Part VI Innovation and Problem-Solving
- Index
- References
Summary
The study of convergent cognitive evolution aims to understand how similarities in physical and social intelligence emerge in evolutionarily distant species. This field, which is relatively new, has focused on a number of taxa, including nonhuman primates, corvids, and other birds, cetaceans, canids, and elephants. In this chapter, we highlight the social minds of elephants in particular, with a review of existing observational and experimental research. Investigations of the proximate mechanisms that underlie social behavior require an understanding of how an animal "sees," "hears," "touches,"and "smells" its world. Thus, we emphasize the need to take elephants’ sensory perspective into account when investigating their cognition, especially considering their exceptional olfactory and acoustic senses. We briefly review the literature on elephant social cognition, and discuss the relevance of such research to elephant conservation.
Keywords
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Cambridge Handbook of Animal Cognition , pp. 362 - 382Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2021
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