A South African university student, Chloe Caister has shared a touching video featuring a herd of elephants. This video is part of her Master’s project investigating elephants’ personalities.
Chloe’s research seeks to determine scientifically whether elephants exhibit distinct personalities. The video serves as a tool to observe their behavior, allowing her to document her findings using specific protocols.
Chloe observes the elephants’ reactions to “novelty stimuli” and records variations in their responses.
These observations help her create detailed personality profiles for the elephants. In the video, stuffed teddy bears and toy elephants were placed in the bush for the elephants to encounter while foraging.
Somopane, an elephant known as the peacekeeper of the herd, reacted confrontationally to the teddy bears by tossing them away from the group.
The other elephants were initially cautious, but they eventually approached the toys, picked them up, examined them, and even tried to eat them.
Chloe explains, “My project focuses on studying the behavior of the Jabulani Herd, particularly because they are rescued elephants. We can identify their personality types through various behavioral experiments and understand how these influence the herd’s interpersonal dynamics.”