The venerable CBS News magazine 60 Minutes profiled the work of Hunter College elephant researcher Joshua Plotnik and his team in a segment that aired on December 8.
Plotnik, an associate professor in Hunter’s Department of Psychology, is director of Hunter’s Comparative Cognition for Conservation Lab and Animal Behavior & Conservation Graduate Programs. The lab seeks to investigate the behavior and intelligence of a variety of species, including the Asian elephant, as a way of contributing to efforts to protect them in the wild.
This past summer, a 60 Minutes crew spent a week following Plotnik’s elephant research team at its field sites in Lampang and Kanchanaburi, Thailand. The story examined the team’s work on understanding the mind of the elephant and how it applies those insights to mitigating conflicts between wild elephants and local villagers.
Such work is important and potentially lifesaving for both species. Understanding the decision-making, priorities, and survival needs of wild elephants contributes to efforts aimed at helping the largest living land animal and humans coexist amicably in the lands they share.
“Elephants display an ability to solve problems, form complex social relationships, and show plenty of personality, which suggests they act in ways that mirror our own behavior,” Plotnik said. “In addition to learning more about the evolution of intelligence across species, we hope that our work understanding how different elephants think and behave could lead to more successful ways to reduce the escalating conflict between humans and elephants in the wild.”
Plotnik’s Comparative Cognition for Conservation Lab focuses on understanding the evolution of cognition across evolutionarily distant species, and he and his team have worked in U.S. zoological institutions and in elephant-range countries for more than 15 years. His work has led to discoveries such as: elephants can recognize themselves in mirrors, comfort upset friends, coordinate with partners, and are innovative problem solvers. Plotnik has been working with elephants in Thailand since 2007.
