Elephant Helping Trunk

Did you know that elephants are one of the smartest species on earth? According to the articles “Elephants Can Lend a Helping Trunk” by Virginia Morell, "Elephants Know When They Need a Helping Trunk in a Cooperative Task” by Joshua M. Plotnik, and the video “Elephants Show Cooperation” presented by Discovery News, a recent experiment done by a team of scientists in Thailand proved that this statement is indeed true. They determined this through an experiment that tested Asian elephants’ cooperative skills. While both the articles and video discuss an experiment involving elephants, each focuses on different aspects of the information. The article, “Elephants Can Lend a Helping Trunk” by Virginia Morell, concentrates more on the behavior of elephants. In the article, there are many studies and references included. For instance, the text
Plotnik, focuses on the procedure of the experiment, and technicalities and building behind the experiment. The passage is based on many numerical references and logic. For example, in the first paragraph the author describes how the table apparatus was built, writing, “The table apparatus was comprised of two pieces of plywood painted and bolted to a rectangular PVC pipe frame 3.3 m wide and 1.2 m deep” (Plotnik). This highlights how the passage is written more about the science involved in building the experiment. Additionally, Plotnik included a graph showing the release intervals and percentages of success of each of the elephants. The inclusion of the graph illustrates how Plotnik chose to focus more on the procedure of the experiment and present his information more formally. The passage from “Elephants Know When They Need a Helping Trunk in a Cooperative Task” highlights the creation of the experiment rather than focusing on the behavior of the elephants even though all three works are based off the same