Dear MEL Topic Readers,
African elephants use names to call each other, study suggests
While most animals aren’t capable of learning to produce new sounds, dolphins
and parrots are known to produce specific sounds to call other individuals. Now,
a new study suggests that African elephants also seem to address each other by individualized
calls. Researchers used a machine-learning model to analyze 469 calls by female
wild elephants and their calves that were recorded over decades. They then
studied three types of rumbles elephants make, contact rumbles to call another
elephant that is far away, greeting rumbles within touching distance, and
caregiver rumbles by adult females to call their calf. Interestingly, the
reactions of the receivers to those calls were stronger to a call that was originally
addressed to them than to one that was addressed to others. Since elephants
live nearly as long as humans in communities, they might have developed the cognitive
ability to call one from others and understand different calls.
Read the article and learn about the surprising elephant's ability to
call others.
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