Elephants and Pointing

The two animal types  I keep an eye on for signs of langage are elephants and crows. You cannot talk unless you can draw attention to something specific, and the easiest way to do that is by poining. So today's NY Times caught my eye with a story about elephant pointing. The data is promising but so far limited to human-elephant interactions. We'll need to confirm that elephants use their trunks/ears/tusks/something to direct their fellows' attention and resolving ambiguities will be difficult work. (Is the pictured elephant eating or pointing?) Meanwhile, we're lucky elephants don't have hands. With them, those big things might be ruling the world, including us.
Source: Babel's Dawn - Category: Medical Scientists Authors: Source Type: blogs