Elephant cognition

Elephant cognition is animal cognition as present in elephants. Most contemporary ethologists view the elephant as one of the world's most intelligent animals. Elephants manifest a wide variety of behaviors, including those associated with grief, learning, mimicry, playing, altruism, tool use, compassion, cooperation, self-awareness, memory, and communication.^[1][2][3] Recent evidence suggests that elephants may understand pointing, the ability to nonverbally communicate an object by extending a finger, or equivalent.^[4]

An elephant brain weighs around 5 kg (11 lb), which is about four times the size of a human brain and the heaviest of any terrestrial animal. It has about 257 billion neurons, which is about three times the amount of neurons as a human brain. However, the cerebral cortex, which is the major center of cognition, has only about one-third of the number of neurons as a human's cerebral cortex.^[5] While elephant brains look similar to those of humans and other mammals and has the same functional areas, there are certain unique structural differences.^[6]

The intelligence of elephants are described to be on par with cetaceans,^{[7][8][9][10]} and various primates.^[8][11][12] Due to its higher cognitive intelligence and presence of family ties, researchers and wildlife experts argue that it is morally wrong for humans to kill them.^[13] Aristotle described the elephant as "the animal that surpasses all others in wit and mind."^[14]