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Author Notes:
Corresponding author: Joshua M. Plotnik, Joshua.Plotnik@gmail.com
Joshua M. Plotnik conceived and designed the experiments, performed the experiments, analyzed the data, contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools, wrote the paper, prepared figures and/or tables, reviewed drafts of the paper.
Frans B.M. de Waal conceived and designed the experiments, contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools, wrote the paper, reviewed drafts of the paper.
We thank P Panyawattanaporn and A Vijit of the National Research Council of Thailand for their support.
We thank T Romero, P Lee, L Rogers and an anonymous reviewer for comments on an earlier version of this manuscript.
We also thank S Chailert for allowing us to study the Elephant Nature Park’s elephants, and J Smith for his support in organizing the project.
We are grateful to K Cullen, G Hayworth, G Highet, J Hilton, M Kobylka, J Schurer, and J Thomas for field support, and the more than forty mahouts – elephant caretakers – who were a constant source of protection and encouragement.
This paper is dedicated to the memory of Karl Cullen, one of the world’s greatest elephant caretakers, without whom this study could not have been completed.
The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.
Competing Interests: JMP is the CEO of Think Elephants International, a U.S. non-profit public charity 501(c)3 based in New York and currently working in Thailand and elsewhere to link elephant behavior and intelligence research with conservation education. Otherwise, the authors declare no Competing Interests.
The following information was supplied relating to ethical approvals (i.e., approving body and any reference numbers): This project was approved by the National Research Council of Thailand and Emory University’s Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (ID 219-2007Y).
Subjects:
Research Funding:
JMP was supported by a US Department of Education Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad Fellowship.
This work was funded in part by the Living Links Center of the Yerkes National Primate Research Center, and the Laney Graduate School of Emory University.
Keywords:
- Consolation
- Elephants
- Conflict resolution
- Targeted helping
- Convergent cognitive evolution
- Animal behavior
- Ecology
Asian elephants ( Elephas maximus ) reassure others in distress
Abstract:
Copyright information:
© 2014 Plotnik et al.
