At a Glance
- A new study reveals that elephants employ a wide range of gestures with goal-directed intentionality, a complex communication ability once thought to be primarily concentrated within primate species.
- Researchers tested 17 semi-captive elephants by presenting them with desired apples, recording their gestural responses when their goals were fully met, partially met, or not met at all.
- The elephants demonstrated clear audience-directedness by using their 38 distinct gesture types almost exclusively when an experimenter was present and paying close attention to their communication attempts.
- The animals demonstrated persistence by continuing to gesture when partially rewarded, and they elaborated their communication by using new gestures when their initial requests for food were denied entirely.
- These findings suggest that sophisticated cognitive communication skills may have evolved independently in highly intelligent and social species, expanding our understanding of animal cognition beyond just primates.
A new study confirms that African Savannah elephants are part of an exclusive club once thought to be reserved for humans and other primates: a group of animals that uses a wide variety of gestures with clear, goal-directed intention. The research, published in Royal Society Open Science, provides the first evidence that elephants deliberately and flexibly signal to an audience to achieve a specific outcome, challenging previous notions about the limits of complex communication in non-primates. This ability is a key component of what scientists call first-order intentionality, where an action is not just a reaction, but a purposeful attempt to influence another’s behavior.
To test this, researchers in Zimbabwe designed an experiment with 17 semi-captive elephants. They presented the elephants with a desirable tray of six apples and an undesirable empty tray. The scientists then recorded the elephants’ gestures in three scenarios: when their goal was fully met and they received all six apples, when their goal was not met and they received an empty tray, and when their goal was partially met and they received only one apple. The team systematically analyzed the elephants’ responses to measure their level of communicative intent based on established criteria such as persistence and elaboration.
The results demonstrated clear intentionality. The elephants almost exclusively gestured—using a repertoire of 38 distinct gesture types—when a human experimenter was visually attentive, proving they understood the need for an audience. They persisted in gesturing more when their goal was only partially met compared to when it was fully met, indicating they were assessing the outcome and continuing to communicate their desire for more. Furthermore, when their initial requests were unmet, the elephants did not simply repeat the same action; they elaborated by using new or different gestures, a hallmark of flexible, goal-oriented problem-solving.
This study significantly expands our understanding of animal cognition and the evolution of communication. By showing that elephants, like apes, possess the ability to use an extensive gesture repertoire with goal-directed intentionality, the research suggests that this sophisticated cognitive skill may have evolved independently in species with complex social structures and advanced intelligence. The findings encourage further investigation into other highly social animals, which could reveal how widespread this capacity for intentional communication truly is across the animal kingdom.
References
- Eleuteri, V., Bates, L., Nyaradzo Masarira, Y., Plotnik, J. M., Hobaiter, C., & Stoeger, A. S. (2025). Investigating intentionality in elephant gestural communication. Royal Society Open Science, 12(7), 242203. https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.242203
- Mondal, S. & Phys.org. (2025, July 12). Elephants gesture with an intention to communicate their desires, study finds. Phys.Org; Phys.org. https://phys.org/news/2025-07-elephants-gesture-intention-communicate-desires.html
