Scientists in Thailand hid fruits in an opaque box; 16 Asian elephants learned to navigate it for rewards and followed it along

Asian elephants can abandon a familiar way of reaching food when it stops working, as per a new study conducted in Thailand. In tests with 16 animals, researchers found evidence of inhibitory control, the ability to hold back an unhelpful response and switch to a successful one in seconds.The research, published in PLOS One on September 9, 2026, offered a closer look at how elephants adjust to changing circumstances. The most revealing moment arrived when scientists moved the route to a fruit, forcing the animals to overcome their habit, one they had just learned.

A fruit reward

Sydney Hope of Hunter College and colleagues tested Asian elephants at Thailand’s National Elephant Institute. They set up a box with a practical problem for an animal with a long, flexible trunk, with the box having a fruit in front of them, but a barrier blocking the direct approach.First, the elephants learned to reach around an opaque box and put their trunks through its opening to retrieve the fruit reward. Then, researchers substituted a transparent box with small holes in the front, allowing the animals to see and smell the reward but with an opening elsewhere.The elephants continued reaching around the barrier, showing that they could successfully shift to the indirect approach even with the food visible in front of them, and not be distracted by the sight of it.Next, the team rotated the box so that the opening was in a different position. Initially, the elephants returned to the place that had previously provided access, even though reaching there did not work. Then, they adjusted and found the new entrance.The study’s measurements captured the disruption. After a rotation in the opening, the average time from first touching to getting their trunk in the opening rose from about 2.2 seconds to 8.2 seconds. Also, performance improved over repeated attempts due to the opening being in the same position.

Older elephants took longer time

Age added another layer to the experiment and the findings. Older elephants were slower to adapt when the opening was rotated, suggesting that suppressing a previously successful response may become difficult later in life. The participants ranged from 4 to 60 years old, but the small sample leaned toward younger animals. A wider spread of ages would help researchers determine how consistently the pattern appears. For now, the authors treat cognitive decline as a possible explanation requiring further study. The distinction matters because a slower response in one task says little about an animal’s full range of abilities. Researchers still need to establish how performance in this particular situation relates to the other demands elephants face

The transparent box needs a careful reading

The authors caution that seeing and smelling the fruit may never have triggered a strong impulse to reach straight ahead, so the animals could simply have continued a practised movement. The rotation trials supplied the clearer evidence because they exposed an initial mistake followed by adjustment. That sequence supports the researchers’ interpretation of inhibitory control, while leaving open questions about how broadly the ability operates in everyday elephant life.“This ability may be important for elephants’ social interactions or for other aspects of cognition, such as problem-solving,” Hope said in a CUNY statement. Those possible connections give researchers something to investigate next, including whether this kind of behavioural flexibility helps elephants coordinate with companions or tackle unfamiliar challenges.

What this could mean for conservation

The experiment extends beyond just a test. Asian elephants encounter farms and settlements across landscapes shared with people, and crop damage can put both communities and animals at risk. Understanding how elephants respond to obstacles could help researchers develop better ways to reduce those encounters. The team proposed that studying how elephants learn routes around barriers could inform strategies for human-elephant coexistence. Testing those ideas in the field would be essential before claiming that a particular approach protects crops or prevents conflict.