Humans aren’t the only animals who acquire wisdom with their years—many other animals appear to learn from their experience, too. In a paper published in PLoS ONE on June 14, 2017, researchers presented evidence that female elk are among those animals that learn a thing or two as they age, particularly when it comes to safety.Scientists Henrik Thurfjell, Simone Ciuti, and Mark S. Boyce used GPS technology to monitor the behavior of forty-nine female elk over six years. They learned that the older females were more cautious than younger females, and over time, younger females started to behave more cautiously, like their elders. The maturing elk learned to travel less during hunting season and to make more frequent use of protected terrain.
These smart females also appeared to adapt their behavior based on the kind of weapon the hunters carried. For example, during bow season, the elk took cover in difficult terrain more frequently, which made it much harder for the bow hunters to get close enough to shoot them; whereas during rifle season, the elk avoided open areas where they might give rifle hunters a clear shot.
With each year, the female elk grew wiser about how to keep themselves safe, and according to Thurfjell, by the time they were nine years old, they were virtually untouchable. “The likelihood that a female elk will be shot by a hunter decreases markedly with age, with female elk becoming almost invulnerable to human hunters when older than 9.” Read the paper here.