A groundbreaking study published in July 2025 demonstrates that African savannah elephants use intentional gestures to communicate their goals, similar to great apes^[1]. The research team presented semi-captive elephants with desired and undesired items, recording their communication attempts when experimenters met, partially met, or failed to meet their goals^[1:1].

The study identified 38 different gesture types that elephants used almost exclusively when a visually attentive experimenter was present^[1:2]. The elephants showed three key criteria for intentional communication:

1. Audience directedness - signaling only when someone was watching
2. Persistence - continuing to gesture when goals were partially met
3. Elaboration - using new signals when communication failed

The research was conducted at the Jafuta Reserve in Zimbabwe, where elephants combined specific vocalizations with gestures in greeting behaviors^[2]. They used different types of signals including:

• Silent-visual gestures
• Audible gestures
• Tactile gestures
• Rumble vocalizations

The findings reveal that elephants, like apes, assess the communicative effectiveness of their gesturing and adjust their signals based on the audience’s visual attention^[2:1]. This expands understanding of intentional communication beyond the primate lineage^[3].