Earlier this year, I wrote about a simple way to probe the mind of a dog: point to something and see if the dog understands your intent. Dogs generally do, and that’s remarkable. Many species, including our closest ape relatives, do a bad job of interpreting a pointed hand.This week in my “Matter” column for the New York Times, I look at a new study that suggests we add another species to the elite list of animals that understand pointing: elephants. Do elephants learn the meaning of pointing from humans? Or do these social behemoths use their trunks to point things out to each other?
Originally published October 10, 2013. Copyright 2013 Carl Zimmer.