Elephants Calls Each Other By Names They Invented, Study Says

A recent study shows that elephants create unique names for each other when they call out to one another, similar to how humans do.

Unique Vocalization

Elephants are the only known non-human creatures to use names that do not involve copying, according to the researchers, despite the fact that dolphins and parrots have been spotted addressing one another by imitating the sounds of other members of their species.

An artificial intelligence program was employed by a group of international researchers to analyze the sounds of two wild herds of African savanna elephants in Kenya for a new study.

The researchers went through elephant "rumbles" that were captured between 1986 and 2022 at Kenya's Amboseli National Park and Samburu National Reserve.

They detected 469 different calls using a machine-learning technique, with 101 elephants making calls and 117 receiving them.

Elephants eplied favorably and "energetically" when the researchers played a tape of a friend or relative shouting out their name, according to the researchers.

According to senior study author Michael Pardo, the research not only demonstrates that elephants use unique vocalizations for each individual, but also that they can distinguish and respond to calls directed at them while disregarding those directed at others.

"This indicates that elephants can determine whether a call was intended for them just by hearing the call, even when out of its original context," the behavioral ecologist at Colorado State University said.

Elephants can communicate not only through sight, smell, and touch but also through voice. A lot of information is communicated by their calls, such as the caller's identity, age, sex, emotional state, and behavioral context.

Their vocalizations cover a wide variety of frequencies, including infrasonic sounds that are below the human ear's audible range. They can range from trumpeting to the quiet rumbling of their vocal cords. Elephants use these cries to coordinate group movements across great distances.

Additionally, adult elephants were more likely than calves to utilize names, indicating that mastery of this specific skill may take years.

The study also states that "a harmonically rich, low-frequency sound" was the most frequently requested sound.

Elephant Conservation

Although rare in animals, the capacity to acquire new sounds is essential for naming specific animals. The ability to convey ideas through sound without copying them is known as arbitrary communication, and it is thought to be a higher order cognitive skill.

The study's newfound understanding of elephant cognition and communication, according to the researchers, supports the need for elephant conservation. Elephants are considered endangered because of habitat loss from development and poaching for their ivory tusks. They require a lot of room due to their size, and they can endanger people and damage property.

Given that elephants separated from primates and cetaceans approximately 90 million years ago, the researchers urged further investigation into the evolutionary roots of this ability to call names.

Frank Pope, the CEO of Save the Elephants, stated that despite our differences, humans and elephants have many things in common, such as "extended family units with rich social lives, underpinned by highly developed brains."

"That elephants use names for one another is likely only the start of the revelations to come," he added.