In a savanna scene, an elephant calf struggles in a canal as the herd looks on with mixed concern and resolve. The little one lies on its back, unable to right itself, while the mother tentatively roams, seeking a way to free the youngster. A hungry lioness watches from a distance, hoping the group will abandon the calf. The mother hesitates, then refuses to abandon her offspring. After several attempts, she uses her strength to push from behind, allowing the calf to sit up and regain balance. The baby survives, and the lioness departs hungry but empty-handed.
Captured by the cameras of the El Dodo channel, this moment illustrates the enduring sense of coexistence elephants have cultivated over generations. Elephants are repeatedly observed comforting distressed members of their herd and mourning their dead, underscoring a social fabric built on empathy and mutual aid.
No trace of prior violence
Researchers note that elephant DNA appears to lack indicators of the brutality once attributed to their distant ancestors, drawing attention in scientific circles. A detailed study concluded that elephants may engage in self-directed social development that resembles a form of domestication, yielding a kinder, more structured way of living within their communities.
The domestication notion describes how wild animals can acquire traits typically associated with domestic species, such as dogs or cats. Distinctive features may include a calmer demeanor and infant-like body signals, such as larger heads and prominent eyes. Interestingly, domesticated animals often show brain changes, including relatively smaller brains compared with their wild counterparts.
Findings published by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences pushed this idea further, suggesting elephants exhibit domestication-like traits independently, without direct human involvement. This rare scenario has only been observed in a handful of species, including bonobos and humans as well as elephants in some contexts.
Traditionally, dogs and cats were domesticated through human interaction. Humans have undergone changes over tens of thousands of years, including facial features and brain development, with agriculture playing a catalytic role in social cooperation and reduced aggression. Scientists note that this self-directed pathway may extend childhood and foster calmer, more cooperative communication and language-like abilities in humans, a trend that might be mirrored in other intelligent species.
Beyond elephants, bonobos offer a striking example. Although closely related to chimpanzees, bonobos exhibit less aggression, softer facial features, and a propensity for affection that helps pacify social tensions. In these cases, natural selection and abundant resources appear to shape more peaceful social structures, independent of human influence.
Nineteen traits shared with humans
Comparative studies suggest only a few species show a similar path toward self-domestication. Among elephants, three species—the African savanna, African forest, and Asian elephants—exhibit reduced aggression and increased prosocial behavior, often going out of their way to protect and comfort others. Like humans, elephants experience cortisol spikes in challenging social situations such as mass hunting or culling, and researchers have cataloged nineteen cognitive, behavioral, and physiological traits common to humans, bonobos, and elephants that are not as evident in other fauna.
The genome of African elephants also reveals intriguing clues. Scientists identified hundreds of genes evolving more rapidly than expected and compared them with a set of genes linked to social behavior and aggression. The pattern suggests that many of these rapidly evolving genes align with domestication-like processes rather than aggression alone.
Studies delve deeper into what might trigger this self-domestication. Researchers propose several factors: a safe environment free from predators, abundant food due to a broad herbivorous diet, and high social cohesion that rewards cooperative living. Some signers describe multiple plausible drivers of elephants’ prosocial tendencies, while others emphasize that joint living arrangements may be adaptive in various ecological contexts.
One interpretation is that such traits could arise from natural selection favoring less reactive aggression, a pattern potentially shared with other social animals, including dolphins and whales, or parrots. The work acknowledges that additional studies are needed to confirm whether elephants are definitively part of this domestication hypothesis in the same sense as other species.
Reference work: [Source: PNAS, 2022].
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