Tuesday, June 11, 2024 -African elephants call each other and respond to individual names, something that few wild animals do, according to new research published on Monday, June 10
The names are one part of elephants’ low
rumbles that they can hear over long distances across the savanna. Scientists
believe that animals with complex social structures and family groups that
separate and then reunite often may be more likely to use individual names.
“If you’re looking after a large family,
you’ve got to be able to say, ‘Hey, Virginia, get over here!’” said Duke
University ecologist Stuart Pimm, who was not involved in the study.
Humans have names, of course, and our dogs
come when their names are called. Baby dolphins invent their own names, called
signature whistles, and parrots may also use names but it's extremely rare for
wild animals to call each other by unique names.
Each of these species including humans also
possesses the ability to learn to pronounce unique new sounds throughout their
lives, a rare talent that elephants also possess.
For the study, biologists used machine
learning to detect the use of names in a sound library of savanna elephant
vocalizations recorded at Kenya’s Samburu National Reserve and Amboseli
National Park.
The scientists followed the elephants in
jeeps to observe who called out and who appeared to respond. For example, if a
mother called a calf, or a matriarch called a straggler who later rejoined the
family group.
Researchers tested their results by playing
recordings to individual elephants, who responded more energetically, ears
flapping and trunk lifted, to recordings that contained their names. Sometimes
elephants entirely ignored vocalizations addressed to others.
Analyzing only the audio data, the computer
model predicted which elephant was being addressed 28% of the time, likely due
to the inclusion of its name. When fed meaningless data, the model only
accurately labeled 8% of calls.“Just like humans, elephants use names, but
probably don’t use names in the majority of utterances, so we wouldn’t expect
100%,” said study author and Cornell University biologist Mickey Pardo.
Elephant rumbles include sounds that are
below the range of human hearing. The scientists still don’t know which part of
the vocalization is the name.
“Elephants are incredibly social,
always talking and touching each other — this naming is probably one of the
things that underpins their ability to communicate to individuals,” said
co-author and Colorado State University ecologist George Wittemyer, who is also
a scientific adviser for nonprofit Save the Elephants.
“We just cracked open the door a bit to the
elephant mind.”
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