End of week 4

Asian elephants acquire inaccessible food by blowing

Mizuno, Kaori, et al. “Asian Elephants Acquire Inaccessible Food by Blowing.” Animal Cognition, vol. 19, no. 1, Jan. 2016, pp. 215–222. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1007/s10071-015-0929-2.

- I was able to access article by using the Academic Search Complete and searching "elephant cognition", I used my previous list of names of researchers to help narrow out searches, I also selected scholarly articles to filter out other articles that would not be of use at this time. The research conducted in this experiment was testing whether or not these elephants were able to attain foods provided that were placed in inaccessible areas. The methods used in this research study was two 30 and 31 year old asian elephants. Foods would be scattered in locations that these elephants could not reach by any means, researchers were looking to find how they would make the effort to make the foods attainable. In this research, scientists were able to conduct that the animals blew an average of 3.18 times in order to get the food in a place where it would be accessible. This study better helps us understand that elephants use their cognition to solve problems.

African elephant alarm calls distinguish between threats from humans and bees

Soltis, Joseph, et al. “African Elephant Alarm Calls Distinguish between Threats from Humans and Bees.” PLoS ONE, vol. 9, no. 2, Feb. 2014, pp. 1–11. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0089403.

- Finding this article was not exactly my intention, I happened to have stumbled across it. I had first searched articles by a researcher I was familiar with, but did not find anything that was of my interest, so I made a general search and filtered it to scholarly articles and found this gem! The research that was conducted was testing the different behaviors these African elephants exhibited when exposed to the sounds of the Samburu tribesman and bees. The conclusions the researchers made about based on their findings was that the elephants make different rumbles and act in distinct ways based off how they feel - danger, fight or flight etc. The conduction of this research allows us to conclude that elephants are hyperaware and can demonstrate properties of defense and ability to alert their peers.

Conclusion

From following the steps of this activity, I have gained iSight and knowledge on how to look for exterior articles that are closely related to my topic of choice. Not only can I save this information for the future of this class, but I can use it for my future research papers. The library database was significant to my research, it made it a whole lot easier to find certain information, texts and authors.