Lending a Trunk In this experiment, Asian elephants had to pull two ends of the same rope simultaneously to drag a bucket of tasty corn within reach. Researchers found that the elephants quickly learned to coordinate their efforts, and would wait at their rope end as long as 45 seconds for an elephant partner. They also appeared to understand that there was no point to pulling if the partner lacked access to the rope (Plotnik & others, 2011).
Think Elephants International, Inc. (www.thinkelephants.org)