A new paper makes the case that elephants have evolved to become generally social and friendly all on their own, much like humans and bonobos.
“Our findings support the idea that elephants, like humans and bonobos, may be self-domesticated,” the study authors wrote.
As for why this might have happened, the team offers some speculation. For one, elephants have few natural predators and generally aren’t picky eaters, which could have afforded them the time and resources to become more socially adept. It’s also possible that something happened in the distant past that forced their ancestors to become especially dependent on each other in order to survive, behaviors that became positively selected for and then passed on.
“I fear we are a long way from being able to say elephants are self-domesticated,” Richard Wrangham, a Harvard University primatologist not involved in the study who is supportive of the hypothesis,Still, it’s an idea worth exploring, and it could have important implications for understanding the evolution of other animals. If elephants have become self-domesticated, then it’s likely an example ofarises independently in different groups of animals .
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