SIGN LANGUAGE COMMUNICATION WITH DOMESTIC ASIAN ELEPHANTS, 1994.

By: J. G. Dolphin. The Dolphin Society, POB 13042, Torrance, CA 90503, USA.

dolphins@dolphinsociety.org

A Potential Foundation For An Elephant / Internet Interface? A Potential Solution To The Elephant Problem?

INTRODUCTION

What are the potentials for communication with elephants? Where do elephants belong in the spectrum of species in communication with humans?

Many domestic Asian Elephants seem to have a continuously variable level of motivation. They seem to be constantly making judgements such as "How hungry am I now? How hard do I want to work for that bunch of bananas?" An observation often made by mahouts of domestic Asian elephants is that they are like children, that they lack initiative and altruism. They don't usually perform trained behaviors without the direction of a mahout and they almost never rescue a mahout from danger.

But are these characteristics much different from those of humans that have been enslaved?

Wild elephants show great initiative, altruism and cooperation in rescue and in many other areas of behavior. Orphaned elephants that have been raised by humans with kindness, sometimes show great friendship, initiative and altruism toward humans.

As an historic progression, cultural and species barriers have been overcome. Perhaps it is time to bridge the abyss of "nothing to talk about unless we share a precise ecological niche or humanoid form". There is excellent communication with gorillas, chimpanzees and orangutans, but they are humanoid to a depth that makes implicit understanding almost automatic. There is good communication with dolphins, but dolphin share the human ecological niche of social hunting. The phyletic, psychological and ecological distance between Humans and Elephants makes empathy difficult, and symbolic communication relies heavily on implicit understanding. Communication through body language, voice tone and emotional contagion rely on the similarity of the conversants. There is excellent rapport with pet wolves, but pet wolves share human lives and territories, wolves are social hunters and even seem to share the human sense of humor. However elephants do share some psychological, ecological, evolutionary and cultural aspects with humans. They use complex vocal communication, acquire human vocal meaning quickly and remember it well.

But in five thousand years of close association, why hasn't elephant to human symbolic communication progressed further? One reason might be that communication has been oriented to Human tasks and not to Elephant tasks.

Why communicate with elephants? As humans encroach on elephant habitat, problems develop. A heavy toll is being taken by crop raiding elephants and associated elephant killing by farmers, elephant poaching for ivory and meat, elephant capture and the killing of humans by elephants. By improving communication with elephants, crop raiding might be converted to cooperative farming and killing prevented.

Humans could gain insight into very alien psychologies and cultures. New perspectives on rainforest ecology and savannah ecology might be gained.

In this experiment, the direction of research was, "Can elephants be trained to act out English verbs? And use trunk gestures to elicit analogous actions from humans? Can nouns be referred to by pointing to objects? Can elephant vocal meaning be acquired in the context of using the gestures for two way sign language communication? Can elephants draw pictures to supplement communication?

A comparison of elephant and human behavior in terms of the elements of Human and Elephant cognitive maps has generated several conclusions regarding similarities in structure and content and thus similarities in the structure and content of elephant and human communication. These conclusions were used to design the strategies and tactics for communication with the elephants in this experiment.

These similarities become evident in the gestural and vocal communication used between elephant and mahaut. Implicit meaning in the form of social and emotional relationship is very commonly communicated. Elephants often effect human behavior through gesture and vocals. Communication becomes comprehensible through the narrowness of the work context. The geography and content of elephant cognitive maps are revealed through comprehension of elephant symbolic communication.

Can elephants draw pictures to supplement communication? Can these pictures allow insight into the geography and elements of elephant cognitive maps? Trunk dexterity is more than adequate to produce simple realistic drawings. Elephants sometimes make marks in the dirt while standing in groups and vocalizing. Are they using the marks for communication?

Communication, cooperation, altruism and problem solving seen to share an interdependent phylogenetic progression, pointing to similarities in the evolution of large-brained mammals; Humans, Elephants, Cetaceans, Apes. Elephant brains are several times larger than human brains, with many times the cortical area available for higher mental function. Elephants have complex vocal communicaton, behave altruistically toward kin group members and routinely solve difficult problems involving child care, rescue , defense, male combat, matriarchal social relations, finding food and water, location of estrous females etc.

Within this broad spectrum of similarity, a comparison of psychological, ecological, evolutionary and cultural similarities is needed as a foundation for a general theory of Elephant/Human communication.

Cognition often expresses clearly in planned behavior. Elephants or humans in a problem situation require symbolic knowledge of the environment. The brain must encode and decode environmental information to motivate insightful behavior.

In it's simplest definition, a cognitive map is a mental representation of goals and paths that allows insightful travel. For example, a short-cut, rather than a familiar route. There are several kinds of evidence that elephants , like humans, have the need for and use cognitive maps.

During Hominid evolution, social hunting, [including the hunting of Mastodons, Mammoths and Elephants], provided both the need for and the occasion to use cognitive maps.

Hunting strategies of mammalian predators include persistence, encirclement, coordinated stalk, ambush, driving, blocking of escape routes before a rush and running in relays. The defense and counter-atack strategies of proboscids require the acquisition and use of cognitive maps.

Most of Human and all of Elephant nutrition is derived from selective plant gathering. This implies a cognitive map and a taxonomy. Elephants have a need to remember locations, seasons and values of plants. They have a need to separate edible from poisonous, painful and perhaps medicinal plants.

Culture itself provides the need for and the occason to use cognitive maps and communication. Matriarchal leadership, exclusion of adolescent males from the kin group, fighting for position in the male hierarchy, crop raiding, anti-predation and home-range and thousands of other aspects of elephant culture, requires a knowledge of the territory and the ability to communicate about it.

Human and Elephant matriarchies can be compared in relation to similar ecologies. Elephant and Human matriarchal cultures that share the same ecosystems, as is central Sumatra, can be compared in terms of exclusion of males, male combat etc.

Crop raiding, homicide and proboside provide both areas of behavioral comparison and an urgent need to communicate with elephants.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Elements and Geography of Elephant and Human Cognitive Maps

WATER

Elephants and Humans need to drink often and they bathe often when possible. There is a need to remember and communicate about the location of water and routes to it.

FOOD

The location and season of food plants are elements of Human and Elephant cognitive maps.

THE MATRIARCH

The identity, location, emotion and communication of the matriarch are of importance to elephant kin-group members and members of human families within matriarchal cultures.

For example, young human or elephant females often annoy the matriarch and need to know her location and emotional state to avoid aggression yet maintain the benefits of association.

Adolescent human or elephant males, forced from the kin group by the matriarch need to know her location to avoid harassment.

When a human or elephant matriarch leads the group, human or elephant family members need to know her intentions.

When human or elephnat matriarchs die, kin groups of leaderless humans or elephants join other matriarch-led kin groups, or a new matriarch assumes leadership from the adult females.

CHILDREN

Young elephant or humans command immediate attention and rescue with a distress call. Their location and situation are of importance to the family, kin group and especially the mother and older daughters. A comparison of Human and Elephant child care might yield clues to similarities in elephant and human cognitive maps , to similarities in the structure and content of communication and to strategies for human/elephant communication.

MATING

The location of estrous females is of extreme importance to human or elephant males.

HOME RANGE

The existence of elephant home ranges and human hunting territories implies of boundaries. When an elephnat or human family group comes into the territory of another group, interactions are of paramount importance. Elephant kin groups join temporarily with the "home" group. Elephant home ranges are comparable in size to human hunting ranges, implying that human and elephant cognitive maps encode equivalent areas.

FARM BOUNDARIES

Boundaries of crops are places of decision for both Human and Elephant crop raiders. Adult males may venture in alone, but juvenile elephants or humans usually gather additional delinquents before raiding. Whole matriarch-led kin groups of human or elephants may raid together, but usually after dark. The location of boundaries and their defenders are elements of human and elephant cognitive maps and could be used to design strategies for elephant / human communication. For example, communication directed toward converting crop raiding into cooperative farming. Elephants could be allowed into fields that need composting. By eating and defecating vegetation in fields, the soil could be improved for the next crop. Elephant plop could even be used for such high priced crops as mushrooms.

MOTHER-DAUGHTER

Human or elephant matriarchal mother-daughter relationships often develop into a permanent bond between adults. The relationship can be compared between species toward communication about family relatinships.

DEATH

The corpse and places of death are of importance to humans and elephants. Elephants sniff the corpse, burry the dead, touch and handle bones extensively, scatter bones and shatter tusks. Elephants seem to display grief at the death of a family member. Attempts to assist a dying elephant may persist long after death. Elephant and human burrial rites can be compared toward communication about death and dying.

ODOR

Frequent sniffing of the route by traveling humans or elephants points to a common olfactory element in the cognitive maps of humans and elephants and to olfactory marking. Elephant odor is concentrated at water holes, places of high food density, and along routes. Elephants and humans detect predators by smell and both detect prey plants or animals by smell. Human nad elephant places of death are vividly marked with intense and persistent olfactory information. Olfaction is important to socially hunting human groups and to socially defending or counter-attacking elephant groups. This points to the value of comparing elephant and human olfactory content and geography of cognitive maps and toward communication about [or with] olfactory information.

THE EXPERIMENT

The research was done with retired working elephants in Northern Thailand and with a six year old male.

The first method tried was "matching-to-sample" visual/gestural communication. Four images were used, a circle, triangle, wavy line and cross. One image was shown to both elephants, then after a delay of ten seconds, they were asked to touch the original from a choice of two. After several trials, Cup , a sixty year old female, would consistently choose the original. Bon, the sixty year old male with one huge tusk, chose spatial relationships, left, right, up or down. He may not have had sufficient eyesight to see the targets clearly.

The second method was exchange of visual images. We would paint a picture, show it to an elephant, then the elephant would draw over the picture, next to it or on a separate paper. We drew realistic images, surreal images or abstract designs. The elephants drew images that we understood as abstract. If they had realistic meaning to the elephants, we were unable to grasp it. All drawings were done on 56 by 80 centimeter drawing paper clipped to fiberboard. We drew in black felt-tip pen or water color. The elephants drew in trunk tip moisture. Their drawings were dusted with paint powder to develop contrast.

The third method of communication tried was sign language. We trained Bon and Cup to raise their trunks to ask a human to "come" , to touch drawings or objects to refer to them, to select spatial positions and to select radio channels by touching "on", "off" and "change" targets.

Mai, the six year old male was interested in playful communication. He would ask for a kiss by making loud chirping noises with is trunk tip, or direct back and neck massage with trunk tip or body position.

METHODS OF TRAINING

We trained the "matching-to-sample" by sticking half bananas to the original, then the correct choice. After ten trials, Cup would touch the correct choice out of two without any bananas on the image.

We trained the elephants to draw pictures by placing bananas on the drawing paper, letting the elephants eat off the paper, dusting the trunk-tip moistened paper with non-toxic paint powder and showing the developed image to the elephants. After we stopped putting bananas on the paper, Bon would make dark complex drawings and then amend them, Cup would make delicate, light touches with the trunk tip. Mai made rapid whipping strikes with the trunk tip.

We trained the sign language gestures by combining motivation with action. For example, for the word "come", we held up a large bunch of bananas, then took one step closer every time an elephant raised a trunk.

ACQUISITION OF ELEPHANT VOCAL MEANING

We attempted to acquire elephant vocal meaning by showing an object to one elephant, then giving a second elephant a choice of two. Both elephants were given bananas for a correct choice. We hoped that the first elephant would vocalize to the second elephant to elicit the correct choice. Then we could record the vocalization, play it back, and if the correct choice were repeated, an 'Elephant to English dictionary" of sub-sonic/sonic elephant vocals could be recorded.

RESULTS

Of the three types of communication, the elephants used the gestures most successfully. They were successful in using syntactic sign language. They were able to combine and recombine gestures to elicit actions from humans and to refer to objects or drawings.

Pointing to objects and drawings was useful in both directions; elephant to human and human to elephant.

Drawing pictures was not useful in communicating symbolic information from elephant to human, but was useful from human to elephant.

Cup was successful in the matching-to-sample, but not Bon, and Mai was not interested. Two elephants are required for the vocal meaning acquisition experiment, so it needs further testing.

We were able to acquire elephant vocal meaning in other sign language contexts.

CONCLUSIONS

Syntactic sign language is useful for human/elephant communication. It could be used in any situation where there is a foundation of mutual motivation. Perhaps for cooperative farming or reforestation. It can help to communicate symbolic information in the context of human/elephant friendships.

A human/elephant friendship pair trained in two way syntactic sign language might act as an elephant/internet interface, allowing anyone on the net to talk with an elephant.

Solutions to the serious problems of crop raiding, homicide, proboscide, village trampling and ivory poaching might be assisted by elephant/human sign language communication.

After extensive elephant vocal meaning acquisition, a computer vocal translator might be programmed, allowing two way symbolic vocal conversations between humans and elephants.