Advanced Elephant Societies Use Physical Affection To Isolate, Distress One Another -The Toast

Advanced Elephant Societies Use Physical Affection To Isolate, Distress One Another

ByDaniel Mallory Ortberg

on February 20, 2014 in Animals

A university research team conducting a decade-long study on several group of Asian and African elephants revealed that, much like humans, elephants often manipulate and isolate distressed individuals by withholding common, everyday physical touches or pointedly refusing to vocalize.

This is the first empirical evidence of calculated indifference in elephant society.

The targeted elephant, often bewildered by its sudden (and often unjustified) abandonment, will roar, bellow, or emit a series of low-frequency growls in order to call to its former mates, unaware that its isolation is targeted and personal rather than accidental. The rest of the herd responds to this behavior by conspicuously and ostentatiously displaying affectionate behavior like nuzzling and trunk-twirling directly in front of the afflicted individual, just to rub it in.

An unrelated scientific study in India concluded that elephants are capable of physically and verbally consoling their friends and family in times of great pain or distress, much as humans do, often using comforting gestures in order to calm down a grieving individual.

Occasionally, however, and for no discernible reason, the herd will walk past a bereaved or suffering member and coldly refuse to make eye contact or touch it in any way.

This is not the only human-like behavior observed in elephant groups in recent years. Several elephants in captivity have been known to paint crude but effective group elephant portraits, often carefully and deliberately excluding a single member of the herd from the sketch.

Researchers believe there is no psycho-social benefit to such behavior and consider it an act of willful, pointless malice. Elephants are widely known for their powerful and long-reaching memories, and almost certainly carry the emotional scars of such bewildering, purposeless exclusion to their elephant graves.

Mallory is an Editor of The Toast.

Comments (38)

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+61 Vote up Vote down

storymultiverse 113p · 579 weeks ago

Mallory.

5 replies · active 579 weeks ago

+33 Vote up Vote down

KivrinEngle 101p · 579 weeks ago

Stop ruining everything, Mallory. ELEPHANTS ARE NOBLE AND KIND AND GOOD.

+42 Vote up Vote down

Narvi · 579 weeks ago

Because of all the murder and the killing of their mothers and the like, young elephants in the African regions suffer from the equivalent of hooliganism, often engaging in reckless vandalism because everyone who could teach them better are dead and they are alone and forever unloved.

+19 Vote up Vote down

KivrinEngle 101p · 579 weeks ago

*quietly sobbing*

+4 Vote up Vote down

bumbleblu 82p · 579 weeks ago

nooooo

+38 Vote up Vote down

hugpunch 130p · 579 weeks ago

+26 Vote up Vote down

turanga_leela 121p · 579 weeks ago

Warden: Well, animals are not like people, Mrs. Simpson. Some of them act badly because they've had a hard life, or have been mistreated...but, like people, some of them are just jerks. Stop that, Mr. Simpson.

3 replies · active 579 weeks ago

+15 Vote up Vote down

Lyzz13 107p · 579 weeks ago

There really is a Simpsons quote for EVERYTHING.

+3 Vote up Vote down

katienaum 129p · 579 weeks ago

http://stream1.gifsoup.com/view5/4433042/stampy-1...

(there must be a way to embed the gif directly into the comment I haven't figured out, right?)

+8 Vote up Vote down

lilsebastian01 151p · 579 weeks ago

you just do [img src=http://stream1.gifsoup.com/view5/4433042/stampy-1-o.gif] but with <> instead of []

+21 Vote up Vote down

Lyzz13 107p · 579 weeks ago

I refuse to believe this without sources. Citation needed! CITATION NEEDED, MALLORY!

1 reply · active 579 weeks ago

+18 Vote up Vote down

Lyzz13 107p · 579 weeks ago

And then I cried myself to sleep with my cuddly elephant toy, who was no longer quite so comforting. Or meeting my eye...

+13 Vote up Vote down

Myrtle 78p · 579 weeks ago

"Human-like behavior" lol. How elitist! Humans are animals and this is simply animal behavior.

1 reply · active 579 weeks ago

+69 Vote up Vote down

malloryelis 142p · 579 weeks ago

“What ho!" I said.
"What ho!" said Motty.
"What ho! What ho!"
"What ho! What ho! What ho!"
After that it seemed rather difficult to go on with the conversation.”

+63 Vote up Vote down

Frumiosa 141p · 579 weeks ago

And on Wednesdays the elephants wear pink.

1 reply · active 579 weeks ago

+14 Vote up Vote down

maccrocodile 144p · 579 weeks ago

I came here to read Mean Girls quotes, and the internet did not disappoint me.

Thank you, internet.

+8 Vote up Vote down

Goatse Fanfiction · 579 weeks ago

Awwww they're just wike little people!

I really hope that we make breakthroughs in decoding elephant body language soon, so we can finally learn what they're saying about each other behind their backs.

1 reply · active 579 weeks ago

+18 Vote up Vote down

tubatoothpaste 122p · 579 weeks ago

And so "body language experts" in elephant gossip magazines can predict which couples are about to break up!

+2 Vote up Vote down

johannespunkt 116p · 579 weeks ago

Oh my god. :( This thought experiment is so weirdly comforting and uncomforting at once.

+48 Vote up Vote down

AmazingSandwich 109p · 579 weeks ago

I often wonder what Mallory's got on Google alerts.

+2 Vote up Vote down

deleted9457019 106p · 579 weeks ago

herdstalking

+20 Vote up Vote down

YoungLeafedJune 122p · 579 weeks ago

"Oh my god, that sugarcane field last night was SICK. I think I ate like 400 pounds of sugarcane, lol. ( OsO )"
"What sugarcane?"
"Oh my god, that was for Kailey!!!!"
"I thought you said you were sick last night."
"I have to go do my homework now. BYYYEEE."

3 replies · active 579 weeks ago

+56 Vote up Vote down

YoungLeafedJune 122p · 579 weeks ago

P.S. That emoticon is my attempt at an elephant version of O_O

+7 Vote up Vote down

dakimel 122p · 579 weeks ago

It worked

+7 Vote up Vote down

thebellewitch 122p · 579 weeks ago

Yeah no that's amazing.

+55 Vote up Vote down

NicoleCliffe 145p · 579 weeks ago

who did this to you

(trying to provoke johnortberg into appearing to say something INCREDIBLE)

+9 Vote up Vote down

dakimel 122p · 579 weeks ago

Elephants are widely known for their powerful and long-reaching memories, and almost certainly carry the emotional scars of such bewildering, purposeless exclusion to their elephant graves.

Their solitary, lonely elephant graves, because even in death they are excluded from the mythic comfort of their bones decomposing en masse with those of the elephants in the elephant graveyards.

+8 Vote up Vote down

littlehuntingcreek 135p · 579 weeks ago

Tune in next week for the Elephant Burn Book

+7 Vote up Vote down

Sugar&Snails · 579 weeks ago

But will there be an elephant "Hey Cows!"?

+19 Vote up Vote down

apple_pi 110p · 579 weeks ago

The targeted elephant, often bewildered by its sudden (and often unjustified) abandonment

WhatEVER. That elephant TOTALLY DESERVED to be shunned. The other elephants were just trying to cut its TOXIC BEHAVIOR out of their lives, and they totally DO NOT NEED this JUDGMENT.

Then there's a trunk-flip (like a hair-flip, but, you know) and some irritable adolescent elephant door-slamming.

+7 Vote up Vote down

cuntessvonfingerbang 85p · 579 weeks ago

I'm feeling particularly spiteful today, so my only response to this is: GOOD. Those isolated elephants probably deserve it.

+19 Vote up Vote down

Frumiosa 141p · 579 weeks ago

When I was in high school, my class played a collective prank on a classmate who was rather credulous about all things. We somehow convinced him that in certain indigenous tribes in Africa, the women use female elephants as midwives, called "totumbas". I have no idea how this originated, as it is certainly the most random thing ever thought up (and I kind of wish it were true). It was just random enough for him to buy it completely. This went on for months, and involved the construction of fake news articles and even enlisting our bio teacher, who was from South Africa, in confirming the existence of totumbas and "their beautiful matriarchal society." When we broke it to him, he was very disappointed that this magical world did not exist. Of course, kids today would just google it first thing and that would be the end of whimsy.

+16 Vote up Vote down

brigidkeely 112p · 579 weeks ago

http://www.nbcnews.com/id/9877346/#.UwZ-HYVnhFs

An elephant named La Petite was accused of having killed a handler. They were in an enclosure together, and the handler died. It's a mystery what happened. From the article, "It's possible one of the other elephants (in the enclosure) might have done it, but they attributed it to her."

Elephants: accusing other elephants of murder!

+7 Vote up Vote down

clairebm 74p · 579 weeks ago

oh jeez, now elephants are assholes too? Along with otters, dolphins and orcas? dammit nature, stop being so disappointing!

+7 Vote up Vote down

themandalin 87p · 579 weeks ago

It's interesting that often the Hairpin (which is where I started) and the Toast (where I planted roots) post articles on the same topic often... but MAN the Toast spin is always so much more exciting!

+7 Vote up Vote down

Emily · 579 weeks ago

I follow Frans de Waal (one of the researchers from the study this is riffing on, who I took a class with) on Facebook, and he posted this link today for his followers, because he thought it was funny. My weird internet corners are colliding, guys!

+10 Vote up Vote down

shevralay 80p · 579 weeks ago

Frans de Waal (one of the study authors) was a professor of mine and he just posted this on his public FB with the note: "HUMOR. Our elephant study has moved to the realm of parody and humor!"

I cannot express how much this particular collision of my internets delights me.

+2 Vote up Vote down

onamission5 83p · 579 weeks ago

Well that is fucking disquieting.

And yet, somehow, not altogether unexpected.

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