Elephants help each other out

They say elephants never forget; now scientists have shown they are also capable of helping one another.

Scientists based at the Thai Elephant Conservation Centre in Lampang conducted tests to see if elephants would co-operate to collect food on a heavy tray that could only be moved by pulling two ropes in unison.

"Not only did the elephants act together, they inhibited the pulling response for up to 45 seconds if the arrival of a partner was delayed," the report in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences journal says.