The Uncanny Similarities Between Humans and This Massive Mammal
Up until now, it was assumed that only humans and bonobos, aka the pygmy chimpanzee, have self-domesticated, or gone through an evolutionary process resulting in less aggressive, more cooperative individuals. Imagine how excited this research team was when they discovered this third group.
Analysis by Dr. Karen Shaw Becker
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STORY AT-A-GLANCE
- Until the results of a recent study were published, it was assumed that humans and bonobos are among the only self-domesticated animals
- Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics have demonstrated that elephants may also be members of this exclusive club, as they "show many traits associated with self-domestication, such as prosocial behavior, playfulness and complex communication skills"
- The research team found that like humans and bonobos, elephants show low levels of aggression and high levels of empathetic and prosocial behavior, have an extended juvenile period, and are playful and curious
- Elephants also form coalitions, care for others' calves, offer protection and comfort to others, and help dying or ill members of their herds; they are also self-aware, sensitive to the needs and wants of others, and have the ability to learn from each other
Scientists theorize that human culture and language may have come about through "self-domestication," an evolutionary process that results in less aggressive, more prosocial individuals. Prosocial behavior describes actions that benefit others: individuals, groups, or society as a whole, such as altruism, cooperation, and caregiving.
Human evolution may have involved natural selection for prosocial and cooperative individuals who are more prone to interact with others, forming complex communities in which they can learn from each other.
When it comes to the domestication of animals such as dogs, cats, and pigs, humans have played a direct role by selecting for desirable traits that became ingrained over thousands of years. However, until recently, the only other recognized self-domesticated animal was the bonobo, aka the pygmy chimpanzee. The website Animalia offers the following description of these fascinating creatures:
"The bonobo (Pan paniscus) is an endangered species of great ape found in a 500,000 km2 (190,000 sq mi) area of the Congo Basin in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Central Africa. Bonobos are one of the closest living relatives to humans, sharing DNA of more than 98%.
They have profound intelligence and are complex beings with emotional expression and sensitivity. Compared to the competitive and male-dominated culture of the chimpanzee, bonobo society is matriarchal, peaceful, and more egalitarian. Due to their compassionate and caring society, bonobos act as a strong symbol of cooperation and peace."1
Interestingly, humans and bonobos may need to welcome a third self-domesticated species to the club.
Elephants May Also Be Self-Domesticated
Recently, a research team from the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics in the Netherlands published a study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences arguing that elephants, like humans and bonobos, may also be self-domesticated.2 From an April 2023 Institute news release:
"Elephants show many traits associated with self-domestication, such as prosocial behavior, playfulness and complex communication skills. This makes elephants an interesting new animal model for the evolution of prosociality."3
According to first study author Limor Raviv:
"The theory of self-domestication is hard to test. This is because only one other species besides humans has been argued to be self-domesticated: bonobos."4
Taking up the challenge, Raviv and her colleagues set about looking at the similarities between humans, bonobos, and elephants, followed by a genetic analysis. What they found is that just like us and the bonobos, elephants show many hallmarks of domestication, including:
- Low levels of aggression
- High levels of empathic and prosocial behavior
- An extended juvenile period
- Increased playfulness and curiosity
They also "form coalitions, 'babysit' calves, offer protection and comfort to others, and help dying or ill members of their herds — and even the occasional outsider."5 The researchers also found evidence that elephants are both self-aware and sensitive to the needs and wants of others.
In addition, elephants have the ability to learn from each other. In other animals, innate behaviors — such as selecting foods to eat or raising offspring — are socially transmitted in elephants. Per ScienceDaily:
"Elephants also have a sophisticated multimodal communication system with an extensive vocal repertoire, ranging from trumpets and roars to low-frequency rumbles. For example, elephants in Kenya have different alarm calls for humans and for bees. Their varied and combined calls even show signs of grammar."6
Last but not least, the research team found several candidate genes associated with domestication in elephants.
Does the Elephant's Size and Strength Play a Role?
The study authors believe that self-domestication in elephants may be related to their massive size and strength.
"This means that elephants are generally less worried about evading or fighting other animals for their survival," Raviv explains. "This kind of 'safe environment' could relax selective pressures for aggression, free cognitive resources, and open up more opportunities for exploration, communication, and play.
"Our hypothesis of self-domestication in elephants has exciting potential for future research in other species. It can inform our understanding of the evolution of prosocial behaviour across evolutionarily distant species, providing important insights into convergent evolution."
8 More Fascinating Facts About Elephants
Their self-domesticated, prosocial characteristics aren't the only things that make elephants special. With their trumpeting trunks, tremendous tusks, and enormous ears, they look like mythical beasts. But their remarkable anatomy is more than just skin deep.
- Trunk — An elephant's trunk is essentially a really long nose and serves the same purpose a human's nose and upper lip do. The trunk contains 100,000 different muscles (the entire human body only has around 640), and the elephant uses it to smell, breathe, snorkel, drink, trumpet, and grab things.
Incredibly, an elephant's trunk is strong enough to kill a lion, tender enough to stroke a baby elephant, and has two finger-like appendages on the end for picking up small objects. - Ears — Elephants control their body temperature with their massive ears. The ears cool warm blood by pumping it through a network of tiny blood vessels in the outer ear tissue. The cooled-down blood then circulates through the rest of the body.
Those huge ears are also used for signaling. When an elephant senses danger, he spreads his ears out to the side of his head, increasing his frontal area to create a large and quite intimidating-looking creature. - Teeth — An elephant's tusks are elongated, continuously growing upper incisors (similar to a human's front teeth). They are used for digging, tearing, and fighting, but not for chewing. Many elephants seem to favor one tusk over the other, much like a right- or left-handed person.
Elephants also have 24 molars during their lifetime. The molars grow from the back of the jaw and slowly migrate toward the front as the front teeth wear down and splinter. The condition of an elephant's teeth predicts his longevity. Once the last of those 24 molars has worn out, he'll no longer be able to chew food and will die of starvation. - Skull — An elephant's skull is full of tiny air pockets to keep it light (relatively speaking, since the average adult elephant skull weighs over 100 pounds). The skull's design, coupled with extraordinarily large neck muscles, allows elephants to eat, drink, and lower their head for other reasons without struggling.
- Brain — Elephants' brains are bigger than the brains of any other land animal, and the cortex has as many neurons as a human brain. The ability of elephants to learn is impressive, and they are also self-aware — they can actually recognize themselves in mirrors. And as the Max Planck Institute study suggests, in the wild these highly social animals demonstrate helpfulness, compassion, and empathy.
Their trunks and feet generate seismic activity that allows them to communicate with one another on a wide variety of subjects. Elephants are likely the only large land-dwelling mammals that communicate using seismic signals. - Feet — The construction of an elephant's feet means he actually walks on tiptoe. His body weight is balanced across the fatty connective tissue of the heels. This tissue also serves as a sort of shock absorber and allows the elephant to move silently.
- Skin — Interestingly, elephant skin is extremely sensitive. That's why elephants wallow in mud and throw dirt and sand over their bodies — to protect their delicate skin from sun, pests, and other insults. All those mud and sand baths change the tint of the skin from a grey black to the color of the soil around them.
- Pregnancy — Elephants carry their young longer than any other mammal — an incredible 22 months! Baby elephants weigh up to 200 pounds at birth.
