The evolution of social intelligence:

Using playback experiments on African elephants we demonstrated that the possession of enhanced discriminatory abilities by the oldest individual in a group of advanced social mammals can influence the social knowledge of the group as a whole, and result in higher per capita reproductive success for female groups led by older individuals. This was the first study to examine directly how wild animals acquire and store information about their social companions and what the biological fitness benefits of enhanced social knowledge might be, with relevance for evolutionary biology and conservation as well as psychology. Detailed in McComb et al., 2001 (see also McComb et al., 2000, McComb et al., 2003).

Interest in skulls and ivory:

We recently provided the first experimental demonstration that elephants show unusual interest in the bones and ivory of their own species (McComb et al., 2006).

Elephant matriarchs and conservation:

We are currently starting work on a new project to compare and contrast matriarch social knowledge and behaviour in natural elephant groups in Kenya versus artificial groups in South Africa. 

Pilot experiments to assess ecological knowledge in matriarchs are also in progress - using playbacks of predator (lion) vocalisations (see video).