Plant volatiles are a salient cue for foraging mammals: elephants target preferred plants despite background plant odour

McArthur, Clare; Finnerty, Patrick B.; Schmitt, Melissa H.; Shuttleworth, Adam; Shrader, Adrian M.

doi:10.1016/j.anbehav.2019.07.002

Cited by 28 publications

(28 citation statements)

References 66 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Another limitation is that our experiments were mainly visual tasks and elephants rely on more non-visual sensory information, such as auditory and olfactory cues (Plotnik et al, 2013 , 2014 , 2019 ; Schmitt et al, 2018 , 2020 ; McArthur et al, 2019 ; Jacobson and Plotnik, in press ). The elephants did have access to complementary visual, acoustic, and olfactory cues in our study; apart from the individuals' smell, the partners wore contrasting clothes and said different sentences when they interacted with the demonstrator.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Investigating Indirect and Direct Reputation Formation in Asian Elephants (Elephas maximus)

et al. 2021

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Reputation is a key component in social interactions of group-living animals and appears to play a role in the establishment of cooperation. Animals can form a reputation of an individual by directly interacting with them or by observing them interact with a third party, i.e., eavesdropping. Elephants are an interesting taxon in which to investigate eavesdropping as they are highly cooperative, large-brained, long-lived terrestrial mammals with a complex social organisation. The aim of this study was to investigate whether captive Asian elephants (Elephas maximus) could form reputations of humans through indirect and/or direct experience in two different paradigms: (1) a cooperative string-pulling task and (2) a scenario requiring begging. Fourteen captive Asian elephants in Thailand participated in an experimental procedure that consisted of three parts: baseline, observation, and testing. In the observation phase, the subject saw a conspecific interact with two people—one cooperative/generous and one non-cooperative/selfish. The observer could then choose which person to approach in the test phase. The elephants were tested in a second session 2–5 days later. We found no support for the hypothesis that elephants can form reputations of humans through indirect or direct experience, but these results may be due to challenges with experimental design rather than a lack of capacity. We discuss how the results may be due to a potential lack of ecological validity in this study and the difficulty of assessing motivation and attentiveness in elephants. Furthermore, we highlight the importance of designing future experiments that account for the elephants' use of multimodal sensory information in their decision-making.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Investigating Indirect and Direct Reputation Formation in Asian Elephants (Elephas maximus)

et al. 2021

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…However, it is not only essential for their protection, but also for foraging. This sense is so developed in elephants that they are able to detect their favourite plants, even with olfactory interferences, such as the presence of volatile organic compounds in the environment [84].…”

Section: Physical and Behavioural Characteristicsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The African Elephant (<i>Loxodonta africana</i>): Mini-Review of an Endangered Species

Sales¹,

Anastácio²,

Pereira³

2020

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Humankind is responsible for conditioning the distribution of species, including the African elephant. From its great physical form to its fascinating social behaviour, Loxodonta africana can trigger an admiration in some and be undervalued by others, often ending up being a victim of human activities. Increasingly, the apparent impossibility of the coexistence of these two species represents a problem for the conservation of the large African mammal.Here it was reviewed the published bibliography about the African savannah elephant (L. africana), between July 2015 and December 2019. The Web of Science (WoS) database enabled the search for the words "Loxodonta africana". From this research, we obtained 310 articles, 149 of them were analysed.Elephants have characteristics that define its uniqueness that are constantly reported, such as: its cognition and extraordinary memory, factors that influence its movements and its distribution, its specific vocalization and the strong dependence on social connections. Threats to the conservation of the species and the urgency of interventions are also an important subject of discussion. Poaching for ivory represents a major obstacle on conservation and has been drastically reducing the number of elephant populations and causing future consequences for those who thrive. Law enforcement in reducing/prohibit poaching has proven to be insufficient, so there is an urgent need to combat the demand for ivory. Also, it is necessary to bypass the conflict, promote tolerance and enable cohabitation. We believe that educating human populations to better understand the species may be the difference to guarantee a future for the species. Conservationists may be the enablers of these educational actions, however, to make the difference, it is necessary to know the species in detail. Mastering knowledge in these behavioural areas will contribute to improve mitigation strategies, which could make the difference to guarantee a future for the species.

show abstract

“…For example, Asian elephants are capable of discriminating between enantiomers (chemical compounds that are mirror images of each other and are thus functionally and chemically almost identical) at extremely high rates that are matched only by mice, and outperform primates, bees, and seals in detecting them (Rizvanovic, Amundin, & Laska, 2013). African Elephants use their sense of smell to find patches of feeding plants, but also to identify preferred species within a patch (McArthur, Finnerty, Schmitt, Shuttleworth, & Shrader, 2019; Schmitt, Shuttleworth, Ward, & Shrader, 2018), probably by perceiving which plant species contain more toxic or unpalatable secondary metabolites (Schmitt, Shuttleworth, Shrader, & Ward, 2020), or more nutrients. In controlled experiments, using scent alone, Asian elephants were able to locate food in an object‐choice task (Plotnik, Shaw, Brubaker, Tiller, & Clayton, 2014) and to differentiate between food quantities (Plotnik et al., 2019).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sweet tooth: Elephants detect fruit sugar levels based on scent alone

Nevo

Schmitt

Ayasse

et al. 2020

Ecology and Evolution

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The ability to assess food quality is crucial to all organisms. Fleshy fruits are a major source of nutrients to various animals, and unlike most food sources, have evolved to be attractive and to be consumed by animals to promote seed dispersal. It has recently been established that fruit scent—the bouquet of volatile chemicals emitted by ripe fruit—is an evolved communication system between plants and animals. Further, it has been argued that chemicals that are synthesized from sugar and its products may be an honest signal for sugar content and fruit quality. Elephants are important seed dispersers for numerous species and possess an olfactory system that is likely to outperform most other animals. We tested the hypothesis that fruit scent signifies sugar content and that elephants are capable of assessing fruit sugar levels based on scent alone. Using a paired‐choice test of marula fruits ( Sclerocarya birrea ) by semitame African elephants, we show that elephants are capable of identifying more sugar‐rich fruits based on scent alone and that this is likely based on two chemical compounds: ethanol and ethyl acetate, both downstream products of sugar fermentation. These results shed light on the mechanisms driving elephant feeding ecology, plant signaling, and the coevolutionary process between angiosperms and animal seed dispersers.

show abstract

Plant volatiles are a salient cue for foraging mammals: elephants target preferred plants despite background plant odour

Cited by 28 publications

References 66 publications

Investigating Indirect and Direct Reputation Formation in Asian Elephants (Elephas maximus)

Investigating Indirect and Direct Reputation Formation in Asian Elephants (Elephas maximus)

The African Elephant (<i>Loxodonta africana</i>): Mini-Review of an Endangered Species

Sweet tooth: Elephants detect fruit sugar levels based on scent alone

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About

Plant volatiles are a salient cue for foraging mammals: elephants target preferred plants despite background plant odour

Cited by 28 publications

References 66 publications

Investigating Indirect and Direct Reputation Formation in Asian Elephants (Elephas maximus)

Investigating Indirect and Direct Reputation Formation in Asian Elephants (Elephas maximus)

The African Elephant (&lt;i&gt;Loxodonta africana&lt;/i&gt;): Mini-Review of an Endangered Species

Sweet tooth: Elephants detect fruit sugar levels based on scent alone

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About

The African Elephant (<i>Loxodonta africana</i>): Mini-Review of an Endangered Species