The intelligence of elephants
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The female elephant learned the first visual discrimination in 330 trials, needed only 10 trials by the fourth pair, and learnt the rest of the 20 pairs with little difficulty.
“It took the female 330 trials to learn the first discrimination, but by the fourth pair, she needed only 10 trials to learn the discrimination, and she learnt the rest of the 20 pairs with little difficulty.”
From Elephant cognition. (2008) · cites this paper as Rensch, B. (1957)
The elephant's performance on the visual discrimination learning set was comparable to that of Old World monkeys and apes.
“certainly this elephant's performance was comparable to that of Old World monkeys and apes.”
From Elephant cognition. (2008) · cites this paper as Rensch, B. (1957)
Rensch re-tested the juvenile female on some of the visual discrimination pairs she had learnt after a one-year delay, and she achieved an accuracy rate of 73-100%.
“Rensch re-tested the juvenile female on some of the visual discrimination pairs she had learnt after a one-year delay, and she achieved an accuracy rate of 73- 100%.”
From Elephant cognition. (2008) · cites this paper as Rensch, B. (1957)
Rensch (1957) found that one Asian elephant could learn to discriminate between 12 tones, and after 1 year, demonstrated that she remembered the meaning (i.e., correct or incorrect) of each tone.
“Rensch (1957) investigated the long-term retention of auditory discrimination in elephants and found that one Asian elephant could learn to discriminate between 12 tones, and after 1 year, demonstrated that she remembered the meaning (i.e., correct or incorrect) of each tone.”
From Do elephants really never forget? What we know about elephant memory and a call for further investigation (2025) · cites this paper as Rensch, 1957
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A brief review of the status, distribution and biology of wild Asian elephants<i>Elephas maximus</i>
SUKUMAR, R. (2006) · International Zoo Yearbook · doi:10.1111/j.1748-1090.2006.00001.x · Cited by 315 · see citing works
“Elephants are highly intelligent (Rensch, 1957) and have superior cognitive abilities.”
BackgroundShoshani, J., Kupsky, W. J., & Marchant, G. H. (2006) · Brain Research Bulletin · doi:10.1016/j.brainresbull.2006.03.016 · Cited by 186 · see citing works
Povinelli, D. J. (1989) · Journal of comparative psychology · doi:10.1037/0735-7036.103.2.122 · Cited by 126 · see citing works
Evolution of Intelligence and Vocal Mimicking
Andrew, R. (1962) · Science · doi:10.1126/science.137.3530.585 · Cited by 108 · see citing works
Insightful problem solving in an Asian elephant
Foerder, P., Galloway, M., Barthel, T., Moore, D. E., & Reiss, D. (2011) · PLoS ONE · doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0023251 · Cited by 107 · see citing works
Elephant cognition in primate perspective
Byrne, R. W., Bates, L. A., & Moss, C. J. (2009) · Comparative Cognition & Behavior Reviews · doi:10.3819/ccbr.2009.40009 · Cited by 106 · see citing works
“work together to roll heavy logs up ramps, which is certainly cooperative, but they have been trained to work like this so may not themselves understand the cooperation (Rensch, 1957).”
BackgroundInfluentialElephants and ethics: toward a morality of coexistence
(2009) · Choice Reviews Online · doi:10.5860/choice.46-3244 · Cited by 99 · see citing works
Relative quantity judgment by Asian elephants (Elephas maximus)
Irie-Sugimoto, N., Kobayashi, T., Sato, T., & Hasegawa, T. (2009) · Animal Cognition · doi:10.1007/s10071-008-0185-9 · Cited by 86 · see citing works
“A seminal study to examine quantitative ability in elephants was carried by Rensch (1957).”
BackgroundInfluentialCreative or created: Using anecdotes to investigate animal cognition
Bates, L. A., & BYRNE, R. (2007) · Methods · doi:10.1016/j.ymeth.2006.11.006 · Cited by 83 · see citing works
Plotnik, J. M., de Waal, F. Β. Μ., Moore, D., & Reiss, D. (2009) · Zoo Biology · doi:10.1002/zoo.20257 · Cited by 71 · see citing works
“The idea of the elephant as a highly cognitive animal is by no means a new topic of study [Nissani, 2004; Romanes, 1882; Rensch, 1957; Schulte 2000; Williams, 1950].”
BackgroundBates, L. A., Poole, J. H., & Byrne, R. W. (2008) · Current Biology · doi:10.1016/j.cub.2008.04.019 · Cited by 63 · see citing works
Observation effects on learning in horses
Baer, K. L., Potter, G. D., Friend, T. H., et al. (1983) · Applied Animal Ethology · doi:10.1016/0304-3762(83)90121-9 · Cited by 55 · see citing works
The relative difficulty of reversal learning (reversal index) as a basis of behavioural comparisons
Rajalakshmi, R., & Jeeves, M. A. (1965) · Animal Behaviour · doi:10.1016/0003-3472(65)90035-7 · Cited by 54 · see citing works
Behavior of female African elephants (Loxodonta africana) in captivity
Adams, J., & Berg, J. K. (1980) · Applied Animal Ethology · doi:10.1016/0304-3762(80)90027-9 · Cited by 52 · see citing works
Cozzi, B., Spagnoli, S., & Bruno, L. (2001) · Brain Research Bulletin · doi:10.1016/s0361-9230(00)00456-1 · Cited by 50 · see citing works
Evidence of means–end behavior in Asian elephants (Elephas maximus)
Irie-Sugimoto, N., Kobayashi, T., Sato, T., & Hasegawa, T. (2008) · Animal Cognition · doi:10.1007/s10071-007-0126-z · Cited by 48 · see citing works
“Furthermore, elephants easily learn to understand various sorts of commands that are verbally expressed by circus trainers and jungle dwellers (e.g. Rensch 1956, 1957).”
BackgroundInfluentialConcurrent recall of serially learned visual discrimination problems in dwarf goats (Capra hircus)
Langbein, J., Siebert, K., & Nuernberg, G. (2008) · Behavioural Processes · doi:10.1016/j.beproc.2008.07.004 · Cited by 47 · see citing works
“manage 7–8 problems (Rensch, 1976), and horses (Dixon, 1970) and elephants (Rensch, 1957) can memorize up to 20 discrimi-”
BackgroundLearning to learn during visual discrimination in group housed dwarf goats (Capra hircus).
Langbein, J., Siebert, K., Nürnberg, G., et al. (2007) · Journal of comparative psychology · doi:10.1037/0735-7036.121.4.447 · Cited by 41 · see citing works
“For example, although horses and elephants generally exhibit good visual discrimination performance, it has been shown that some symbols are discriminated more readily than others (Rensch, 1957; Voith, 1975).”
BackgroundSIMULTANEOUS VISUAL DISCRIMINATION IN ASIAN ELEPHANTS
Nissani, M., Hoefler-Nissani, D., Lay, U. T., & Htun, U. W. (2005) · Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior · doi:10.1901/jeab.2005.34-04 · Cited by 39 · see citing works
Plotnik, J. M., & Jacobson, S. L. (2022) · Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences · doi:10.1016/j.cobeha.2022.101148 · Cited by 34 · see citing works
Long-term retention of the differential values of Arabic numerals by chimpanzees ( Pan troglodytes )
Beran, M. J. (2004) · Animal Cognition · doi:10.1007/s10071-003-0191-x · Cited by 34 · see citing works
“Rensch (1957) reported that an elephant remembered the positive stimuli within a discrimination task even with a delay of more than a year between learning and retest.”
BackgroundMental evolution in man : origin of human faculty / by George John Romanes.
Romanes, G. J. (1898) · doi:10.5962/bhl.title.36085 · Cited by 34 · see citing works
Elephant swarm water search algorithm for global optimization
Mandal, S. (2018) · Sadhana · doi:10.1007/s12046-017-0780-z · Cited by 32 · see citing works
“One study of a captive female Asian elephant suggested that the animal was capable of learning and distinguishing between several visual and some acoustic discrimination pairs [36].”
BackgroundIs painting by elephants in zoos as enriching as we are led to believe?
English, M., Kaplan, G., & Rogers, L. J. (2014) · PeerJ · doi:10.7717/peerj.471 · Cited by 30 · see citing works
“Since the 1960s elephants have been considered intelligent (Rensch, 1957; Gordon, 1966), with significant research about their cognitive abilities taking place in recent years (Shoshani, Kupsky & Marchant, 2006; Bradshaw & Schore, 2007; Hart, Hart & Pinter-Wollman, 2008; Byrne, Bates & Moss, 2009).”
BackgroundDo asian elephants (Elephas maximus) apply causal reasoning to tool-use tasks?
Nissani, M. (2006) · Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes · doi:10.1037/0097-7403.32.1.91 · Cited by 28 · see citing works
“This resemblance does not rule out—but still is not readily reconcilable with—the attribution to elephants of ideation (Rensch, 1957), thinking (Gordon, 1966), insight (Nissani, 2004; Williams, 1950), grief (Spinage, 1994), suicide (Gale, 1974), deception (Morris, 1986), and consciousness (Poole, 1997).”
BackgroundInitial findings on visual acuity thresholds in an African elephant (Loxodonta africana)
Shyan‐Norwalt, M. R., Peterson, J., Milankow, B., Staggs, T. E., & Dale, R. (2009) · Zoo Biology · doi:10.1002/zoo.20259 · Cited by 25 · see citing works
“Butler University Digital Commons @ Butler University Scholarship and Professional Work - LAS College of Liberal Arts & Sciences 2-3-2010”
BackgroundElephant psychology: What we know and what we would like to know
Irie, N., & Hasegawa, T. (2009) · Japanese Psychological Research · doi:10.1111/j.1468-5884.2009.00404.x · Cited by 22 · see citing works
“One seminal study examined to what extent Asian elephants possess the ability to memorize sets of arbitrary drawings (Rensch, 1957).”
BackgroundAre Asian elephants afraid of honeybees? Experimental studies in northern Thailand
Dror, S., Harich, F. K., Duangphakdee, O., et al. (2020) · Mammalian Biology · doi:10.1007/s42991-020-00042-w · Cited by 21 · see citing works
“We suggest that the increase in the probability, with which elephants crossed the beehive fence over time, is a result of both habituation as well as simple learning processes, both of which reflect the elephant’s strong cognitive capacity and problem-solving skills (Rensch 1957).”
BackgroundMandal, S., Saha, G. K., & Pal, R. K. (2017) · Journal of Bioinformatics and Computational Biology · doi:10.1142/s0219720017500160 · Cited by 19 · see citing works
Theory of Mind and Insight in Chimpanzees, Elephants, and Other Animals?
Nissani, M. (2004) · Comparative Vertebrate Cognition · doi:10.1007/978-1-4419-8913-0_7 · Cited by 19 · see citing works
Memory for object discriminations in the rhesus monkey.
Strong, P. N. (1959) · Journal of Comparative and Physiological Psychology · doi:10.1037/h0045564 · Cited by 18 · see citing works
The importance of sensory perception in an elephant's cognitive world
Jacobson, S. L., & Plotnik, J. M. (2020) · Comparative Cognition & Behavior Reviews · doi:10.3819/ccbr.2020.150006 · Cited by 19 · see citing works
“Other researchers have questioned elephants’ capacity for learning and cognition based on conclusions drawn from visual discrimination studies (Nissani et al., 2005; Rensch, 1957).”
BackgroundDiscrimination of “Four” and “Two” by Pigeons
Watanabe, S. (1998) · The Psychological Record · doi:10.1007/bf03395279 · Cited by 16 · see citing works
Schulte, B. A. (2006) · Wiley eBooks · doi:10.1002/9780470344484.ch4 · Cited by 16 · see citing works
Reader, S. M. (2003) · Cambridge University Press eBooks · doi:10.1017/cbo9780511584022.004 · Cited by 15 · see citing works
Collective behaviour of wild Asian elephants in risky situations: how do social groups cross roads?
Mizuno, K., Sharma, N., Idani, G., & Sukumar, R. (2017) · Behaviour · doi:10.1163/1568539x-00003465 · Cited by 14 · see citing works
Novel behaviour shown by an Asian elephant in the context of allomothering
Vidya, T. N. C. (2014) · acta ethologica · doi:10.1007/s10211-013-0168-y · Cited by 13 · see citing works
“Discrimination between visual patterns (Rensch 1957) and mirror self-recognition in a single captive Asian elephant (Plotnik et al. 2006) have been shown, but causal understanding has been debated about (see Williams 1950; Nissani 2006; Byrne and Bates 2011).”
BackgroundSavage, A., Rice, J. M., Brangan, J. M., Martini, D. P., Pugh, J. A., & Miller, C. D. (1994) · Zoo Biology · doi:10.1002/zoo.1430130109 · Cited by 12 · see citing works
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Elephant Social Systems: What Do We Know and How Have Molecular Tools Helped?
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Elephant Cognition: A Review of Recent Experiments
Nissani, M. (2008) · Cited by 11 · see citing works
Roberts, W. A., Guitar, N. A., Marsh, H. L., & MacDonald, H. (2016) · Animal Cognition · doi:10.1007/s10071-016-0964-7 · Cited by 10 · see citing works
Hope, S. F., Willgohs, K. R., Dittakul, S., & Plotnik, J. M. (2025) · Learning & Behavior · doi:10.3758/s13420-024-00655-y · Cited by 8 · see citing works
“…long-term memories (Arvidsson et al., 2012; Dale, 2008; Hoerner et al., 2023; Markowitz et al., 1975; McComb et al., 2000; Polansky et al., 2015; Rensch, 1956, 1957; Rizvanovic, 2012; Tsalyuk et al., 2019) and cognitive flexibility (e.g., innovative problem solving; Jacobson et al., 2022,…”
InfluentialCognitive Abilities in Elephants
Bates, L. A. (2020) · Cambridge University Press eBooks · doi:10.1017/9781108131797.003 · Cited by 10 · see citing works
Visual Problem-Solving in a Bottlenose Dolphin
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Insightful Problem Solving in an Asian Elephant
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Li, L., He, R., Pansini, R., & Quan, R. (2022) · Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution · doi:10.3389/fevo.2022.963052 · Cited by 4 · see citing works
“During human-elephant interactions, elephants may develop the ability to discriminate between threatening individuals to non-threatening individuals, and they have excellent memory capacity (Rensch, 1957; Hart et al., 2008).”
BackgroundTwo-choice discrimination learning in African elephants (Loxodonta africana)
Hyatt, C. W. (2013) · Pachyderm · doi:10.69649/pachyderm.v53i.326 · Cited by 4 · see citing works
“Similar patterns of acquisition and retention were noted for these elephants as for the Asian elephant trained by Rensch (1957). These findings suggest rich potential for learning in this highly tractable animal.”
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Chapter 7. From the mouth of the Mahout
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- Authors
- Rensch, B.
- Corresponding author
- Rensch, B.
- Venue
- Scientific American
- Published
- 1957-02
- Volume
- 196
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 44-49
- ISSN
- 0036-8733 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W1984163969
- Cited by
- 70
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2025: 1 · 2024: 1 · 2023: 1 · 2022: 4 · 2021: 4 · 2020: 4 · 2019: 2 · 2018: 2 · 2017: 2 · 2016: 1 · 2014: 3 · 2013: 2 · 2012: 1
- FWCI
- 1.82
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Scientific American (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Primate Behavior and Ecology
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Ecology › Wildlife Ecology and Conservation
- Health Sciences › Veterinary › Small Animals › Animal Behavior and Welfare Studies
- Keywords
- elephants, animal intelligence, animal cognition, animal behavior
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