Knowledge and culture in savannah elephants: What do we know, and what should we do next?
Institute Seminar by Lucy Bates
- Date: May 20, 2025
- Time: 10:30 AM - 11:30 AM (Local Time Germany)
- Speaker: Lucy Bates
- My research considers the evolution of social skills and cognition in mammals, particularly elephants. My current work concerns the acquisition of information and the role of ‘knowledgeable’ individuals in elephant society. This has implications for elephant conservation and management policy, which is an important part of my interest, and I endeavour to use my research to contribute to and enable sustainable, fair and effective conservation practices. My passion for studying elephant cognition began with my first post-doctoral research position, conducted between 2005 and 2008 at the University of St Andrews. Working with Professor Dick Byrne, I conducted some of the first field studies exploring social cognition in savannah elephants, working in collaboration with the Amboseli Trust for Elephants. Before that I completed my PhD on chimpanzee behavioural ecology, also at St Andrews. After the post-doc I took a break from academia, working as a consultant for various conservation projects in southern Africa between 2009 and 2015 before returning to research with a part-time Daphne Jackson Trust Fellowship held at the University of Sussex, working alongside Professor Karen McComb. I then worked as an Associate Lecturer at the Open University, before joining the University of Portsmouth as a (part-time) lecturer in 2022.
- Location: Bückle St. 5a, 78467 Konstanz
- Room: Seminar room MPI-AB Bücklestrasse + Online
- Host: Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior
- Contact: rthillaikumar@ab.mpg.de
In this talk, I will explore what we know about the acquisition of information and the role of knowledgeable individuals in elephant society. It is something of a mantra for elephant biologists that older elephants are ‘repositories of knowledge’, but I will question what this means in two ways. Firstly, by exploring the evidence we currently have about social (versus individual) acquisition of information, behavioural traditions, and cultural traits in elephants; and secondly, by considering what happens when elders or other knowledgeable individuals are lost to elephant society. I will present both historic studies and ongoing research being conducted in my lab, as well as suggesting potential new studies that could contribute to our exploration of social learning, culture and knowledge in elephants. I will finish with a discussion of why this research is important – for the conservation of the species, and for the people living alongside elephants.
The MPI-AB Seminar Series is open to members of MPI and Uni Konstanz. The zoom link is published each week in the MPI-AB newsletter.