Study shows that elephants can call each other by name

By Will Dunham

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Over the years, researchers studying elephants have noticed an intriguing phenomenon. Sometimes when an elephant vocalizes to a group of other elephants, they all respond. But sometimes, when the same elephant makes a similar call to the group, only a single individual responds.

Do elephants address each other by the equivalent of a name? A new study involving wild elephants from the African savannah in Kenya supports this idea.

The researchers analyzed vocalizations – mainly sounds generated by elephants using their vocal cords, similar to the way people speak – made by more than 100 elephants in Amboseli National Park and Samburu National Reserve.

Using a machine learning model, the researchers identified what appeared to be a name-like component in these calls, identifying a specific elephant as the intended recipient. The researchers then played audio to 17 elephants to test how they would respond to a call apparently directed at them, as well as a call apparently directed at some other elephant.

Elephants responded more strongly, on average, to calls apparently directed at them. When they heard such a call, they tended to behave more enthusiastically, walk toward the audio source, and make more vocalizations than when they heard one apparently intended for someone else.

The study’s findings indicate that elephants “address each other with something akin to a name,” according to behavioral ecologist Mickey Pardo of Cornell University and formerly of Colorado State University, lead author of the study published Monday. fair in the journal Nature Ecology & Evolution.

“Certainly, to address each other in this way, elephants must learn to associate specific sounds with specific individuals and then use those sounds to get the attention of the individual in question, which requires a sophisticated learning ability and understanding of social relationships ”, he stated. Pardo said.

“The fact that elephants address each other as individuals highlights the importance of social bonds – and specifically, maintaining many different social bonds – for these animals,” Pardo added.

Elephants, the largest land animals on Earth, are highly intelligent, known for having a keen memory, problem-solving abilities and sophisticated communication. Previous research has shown that they adopt complicated behaviors – visual, acoustic and tactile gestures – when greeting each other.

Why would an elephant call another elephant by its “name”?

“We don’t know comprehensively, but from our analysis this appears commonly during contact calls in which an elephant calls another individual – often by name,” said Colorado State University conservation biologist and study co-author George Wittemyer, president of the scientific council. from the conservation group Save the Elephants.

“It was also common among mothers to murmur to their calves, often to calm them or check on them. We thought we would find this in greeting ceremonies, but it was less common in these types of vocalizations,” Wittemyer added.

Using individual-specific vocal labels – names – is rare, but not unheard of, in the animal kingdom. Dolphins and parrots have been shown to do this as well. But when they do, they only imitate the vocalizations made by the other animal. In elephants, vocal labels do not simply imitate the sounds made by the recipient.

“Instead, their names appear to be arbitrary, like human names,” Pardo said. “Addressing individuals with arbitrary names probably requires a capacity for some degree of abstract thought.”

“I think this work highlights how intelligent and interesting elephants are, and I hope it generates greater interest in their conservation and protection,” Wittemyer added.

Will people one day be able to “talk” to elephants?

“That would be fantastic, but we’re still a long way from that,” Wittemyer said. “We still don’t know the syntax or basic elements by which elephant vocalizations encode information. We need to figure this out before we can make deeper progress in understanding them.”

(Reporting by Will Dunham; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)