herds of elephants. It is within reason to speculate that the character or na-
ture of the activity reflected the emotional state of the people and that this
was translated by the elephants into evidence of grief and sorrow. Whether
elephants could make such an interpretation is dealt with elsewhere in this
book. Whether they made such an interpretation in this case may only add a
contributing factor to the accumulating evidence that they could detect that
something was wrong. This alone may have triggered their pilgrimage to
the farmhouse. Equally, we could argue that through these mechanisms both
herds had in fact made what can only be seen as a sophisticated interpretation
of the observed activity and did in fact go to the farmhouse to express grief
and compassion.
Chapter 8
Empathy and Altruism
Empathy is the capacity to
●
be affected by and share the emotional state of another,
●
have some concept of the reasons for the other’s state, and
●
be able to sense what the other is feeling.
Empathy is a mammalian trait and almost certainly originates with parental
care. It is essential in highly social animals such as elephants (Byrne and Bates,
2010). In elephants, as for mammals as a whole, maternal care is the costliest,
longest-lasting act of all. Elephant young nurse for at least 22 months, remain
close to their mothers for more than 10 years, and, if female, may remain with
the mother’s herd for the rest of their lives. The capacity to relate to the feel-
ings of others is not only consolidated in the individual’s maternal relation-
ship but the process itself has been repeated in countless generations during
evolutionary time. Empathy is for an elephant no conscious cognitive skill but
manifested largely as an unconscious automatic response. It becomes part of
its emotional response system and, if anything, displays empathy as an inborn
emotional state.
Lee and Moss (2012) carried out a carefully controlled experiment to de-
termine whether stable characteristics of elephant personalities could be traced
from generation to generation. Four components of behavior—leadership, play-
fulness, gentleness, and constancy—were tested and the results subjected to sta-
tistical verification. The results showed that elephants are highly affiliative and
cooperative and display infrequent overt aggression between family members.
Care provided to calves made up most such interactions, followed by female–
female friendly contact. Leadership is shown in exerting influence rather than
dominance. Lee and Moss concluded that leadership was manifest in terms of
respect, which recognized problem solving and permissiveness.
Elephants are very sensitive to the emotional state of others and have
multiple and subtle means (sound, smell, sight, taste, and touch) of detect-
ing this state. The capacity of the elephants to detect and read the state of
others is critical to their survival. It is essential in social interactions, in co-
ordinated activity, and in cooperation toward shared goals (de Waal, 2008).
As Bates et al. (2008b) point out, not to do so would be maladaptive and
potentially fatal.
Elephant Sense and Sensibility. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-802217-7.00008-9
Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
47
48 Elephant Sense and Sensibility
Altruism is behavior that costs the participant something while benefiting
another. Altruism grows out of empathy for those in need, blurring the lines
between self and others and between selfish and unselfish (de Waal, 2013,
pp. 27–28, 33).
Paolo Torchio photographed a family of some nine elephants surrounding and
protecting one of their group giving birth on the open plains below Kilimanjaro
in the Amboseli National Park (Steyn du Toit, http://www.2oceansvibe.
com/2012/03/01/elephants-protect-female-giving-birth-from-prowling-
predators). Hyenas were circling the group, aware of what was taking place and posing a distinct threat to the mother and calf. The tight circle around the mother
was maintained until the calf was born.
Under other circumstances in the absence of predators and with cover avail-
able, the expectant mother more frequently leaves her group and goes into the
bush to give birth. In the open plains of Amboseli, this was not possible and the
herd rallied to give shelter.
At and following the moment of birth, Torchio recorded that “the elephants
started trumpeting as though they were welcoming the new arrival.” Moments
later they tusked up dirt and grass, throwing clumps into the air. There is little
doubt that the members of this group were aware of the physical state of the
mother, knew that she was about to give birth, knew that predators were present,
and represented a threat. Part of their perception was the clear recognition of
her condition, but a significant part anticipated what had not yet happened. The
elephants in the group may have sensed how the mother was feeling. Their display
of tossing soil and grass into the air once the calf was born could have repre-
sented an expression of relief and joy or perhaps a physical response to mask the
smell of blood and placenta from the nearby predators. Each of these possibilities
represents the further capacity to perceive and respond to the state of others.
de Waal (2008) describes a blind elephant being cared for by an unrelated
female. The blind female depended entirely upon the other, staying close to her
and vocalizing as soon as they lost such contact. Both elephants appeared to be
conscious of the fact that they depended on each other (p. 53).
Bates and colleagues (2008b) have carried out the first carefully controlled
experiment on empathy on 58 family units in the Amboseli population of some
1434 elephants. They found 249 empathic responses, which were observed on
at least two occasions. These they divided into six categories and attempted to
determine the minimum level of cognitive activity (thinking) associated with
each category.
They were able to show coalitions between two or more elephants who
act against one or more other elephants who might threaten them or another
elephant (calf) whom they may be protecting.
Acting collaboratively against another was observed and was taken as evi-
dence of empathy and the recognition of the emotional state of others.
Protection was clearly observed, especially in mothers and allomothers
who recognized the condition of others (potential threat) and acted to avoid the
Empathy and Altruism Chapter | 8 49
situation before it could occur such as protection against predators, intervening
in play fights that were getting out of hand, pushing away a harasser, and avoid-
ing others that were potentially dangerous or avoiding dangerous areas. Such
pre-emptive behavior suggests both empathy and cognition.
Mothers and allomothers were found to give comfort, responding to the
emotional state of the calf or anticipating that a stressful state was developing.
Although the Bates study apparently did not include sound
as part of their ob-
servations, it is likely that near continuous low-level, low-frequency calls play
a pervasive role in comforting the young and reducing stress. Such comforting
included care provided by others in the calf’s natal family, behavior observed
in only a few other species. As described above, calves often stray from their
mothers and become separated. On occasions other females, not in the family
group, will actively attempt to kidnap the calf. Calves will sometimes but not al-
ways give lost calls, which will be responded to by their mothers or allomothers.
In many cases, retrievals will be initiated by a retriever who is not the mother of
the lost calf, once more suggesting empathy and reasoning.
Help given to a calf in difficulty, as illustrated in the calf trapped in a waterhole
described in chapter 6, is often carried out by elephants other than the mother,
reaffirming the cognitive as opposed to parental instinctual aspect of the behav-
ior. Both mothers and close kin have been seen breaking the wire of an electric
fence with a tusk to allow the calf to get through the fence, leading the calf to
easier terrain, or tusking a bank to give the calf a foothold and helping a calf
stand.
The recognition and removal of foreign objects was also recorded in the
Amboseli study and reported in a separate earlier study (Bates et al., 2007). An
adult male removed a tranquilizing dart from another elephant. The dart was
then dropped and ignored, suggesting that the motivation came from awareness
that the dart was a foreign object and did not belong in the body of an ele-
phant. Similarly, Maasai spears were examined. The elephant touched the spear,
splashed water and mud onto the wound, then dusted the wound but did not re-
move the spear. While no evidence could be found, it is likely that the spear was
not only visibly foreign but could have been clearly recognized through smell
as alien and belonging to a species known to be dangerous (see Chapter 11).
The Amboseli study supports the contention that elephants recognize emo-
tions in others of their species, are aware of the characteristic behavior and
therefore react to unusual conditions, and understand that other elephants are
animate agents who perform directed behavior and experience recognizable
emotions. This cognitive empathy, however, must rest upon the ability to dis-
tinguish between self and others and to comprehend that others have selves like
themselves.
Elephants’ awareness of others or, at the very least, an acute awareness of
their surroundings is illustrated by an incident observed by Jennifer Dieudonne
in the Etosha National Park in Namibia in 2010. Dew drops tracing the intricate
geometry of a giant spider web stretched across a game path were glinting in
50 Elephant Sense and Sensibility
the rays of the rising sun. A herd of elephants was coming down the trail head-
ing straight toward the jeweled web. Just before reaching it, each giant animal,
including the younger calves, stepped off the trail and carefully went around
the web.
The so-called “mirror test” provides a narrow test of self-awareness (Bates
et al., 2008b). Perhaps only three animals—humans, apes, and dolphins—
understand that they see themselves in mirrors. In human children, cognitive
empathy and mirror recognition occur at the same time. Elephants have only
recently been shown to recognize themselves in a mirror. Here the study was
conducted by first allowing an elephant to become familiar with a mirror, then
placing a mark (a prominent white X) on the head of the elephant, visible only
to the elephant when it looked in the mirror. The elephant being tested touched
the white mark with the tip of its trunk, clearly recognizing that this symbol was
not part of its body. This evidence of self-awareness is considered essential for
animals to exhibit empathy. Empathy, with the awareness of how others feel,
can hardly be recognized without being aware of one’s own feelings.
Other mirror tests with elephants have failed. Does this inconsistent result
demonstrate that elephants are not aware of themselves and therefore not aware
of the emotional state of others, and thus not capable of empathy? It is more
likely that the deficiency lies in the design of the mirror test and the conclusions
drawn from these tests rather than the absence of empathy in elephants. Sight
in an elephant, as emphasized throughout this book, is not at the top of the list
of sensory inputs to an elephant’s brain. Smell and sound are more important to
an elephant than sight. Touch and taste may well play a much larger role than
sight. Thus, a test based on vision and the interpretation of images may not be
the most appropriate test for elephants. The fact that an elephant, as opposed to
a primate or a human child, accepts an image in a mirror as being of itself is re-
markable. The elephant when recognizing others does so most directly in terms
of smell, touch, feel, and sound rather than sight. For a mirror test to work for
an elephant on the basis of sight alone is far more remarkable than for the same
test to work for animals such as ourselves or other primates. de Waal (2008, pp.
116–117) adds percipient insight into this problem by saying, “We may be giv-
ing the wrong tools or holding up the wrong mirror.” This insight is reflected in
evidence of absence.”
The reaction of elephants to distressed and dying individuals and to the death
of another elephant, especially one closely related to a given individual, may be
the ultimate test of whether elephants exhibit empathy or not. The recognition
of death or even the response to distress and dying is rare in most animals.
Without the recognition of self, death of others has little or no significance.
Lack of the impact of death and dying may therefore reflect profoundly upon
the capacity for empathy.
There are many examples of elephants trying to assist those in distress or
dying. Agitation is seen in the herd and herd members try desperately to lift the
Empathy and Altruism Chapter | 8 51
victim with their trunks and tusks. This has been observed both with natural
mortality as well as when elephants have been immobilized by darting. A case
in point is Echo’s calf in Amboseli, who, at birth, was unable to straighten his
front feet, struggled to get up, and then hobbled on his knees. He was repeatedly
helped by other elephants and catered to by his mother, who remained with him
even when the herd moved on (Moss, NGS film).
Douglas-Hamilton and colleagues (2006) were able to document the col-
lapse and death of Eleanor, the matriarch of an elephant family (First Ladies)
and the behavior of members of other families known to Eleanor. These
elephants in the Samburu region of Kenya had been monitored by GPS track-
ing technology over a period of almost 10 years. Family units and their rela-
tionships were well known, as were the relationships between the 12 family
units in the region.
Eleanor was observed by a member of Douglas-Hamilton’s team to collapse
from serious injuries sustained in a recent fall. Within 2 min, Grace, the matri-
arch of the Virtues family, arrived and bodily lifted Eleanor back onto her feet,
trying to get her to walk. Weak and wobbly, Eleanor’s back legs gave way and
she again fell to the ground. Grace, trumpeting and very stressed, tried without
success to get Eleanor onto her feet. At this point with night falling, Grace’s
family left, leaving Grace with Eleanor for at least the next hour.
Eleanor died the next day at 11:00 a.m., leaving her 6-month-old female calf
confused and hungry. A total of 12 female members of Eleanor’s family, in par-
ticular Maya, who was thought to be Eleanor’s daughter, and members of five
other family units could be tracked and their location relative to Eleanor’s body
determined. Over the next 6 days Douglas-Hamilton’s team was able to moni-
tor the movements of these other elephants relative to Eleanor’s body. Family
members approached the body more closely and spent more time with the body
than nonfamily members, exhibiting altruistic behavior to kin. However, the
interest displayed in the injured and subsequently dead elephant irrespective of
genetic relationship showed a generalized response to distress not restricted to
close kin. They concluded that this case could be seen as an example of “how
elephants and humans may share emotions, such as compassion, and have an
awareness and interest about death” (Douglas-Hamilton et al., 2006, p. 15).
In Etosha National Park, anthrax is endemic and can be fatal to elephants.
Ginger and Conrad Brain, in the National Geographic film Giants of Etosha,
recount how the matriarch of the herd they were following, Knobnose, lost two
successive calves to anthrax. Knobnose, who had led this herd for many years,
disappeared for months. Finally, she was located and could only be described
by Ginger as extremely despondent and depressed. She would not lead the herd
and was found visiting the remains of her calf. While gently touching and prob-
ing the skull of her calf with her trunk, Ginger recorded, inaudible to the human
ear, the sounds Knobnose was making. When the recordings of these sounds
were sped up and made audible to human ears, one heard the heart rendering
moans of a mother grieving for her lost child. By any measure, Knobnose was