A new study has found evidence that elephants give each other names which they use to call out to one another.
The results of the study further demonstrate the highly intelligent nature of the majestic creatures and the findings are already proving to be of great interest to wildlife biologists.
How Did Researchers Make This Fascinating Discovery?
What originally caught researchers’ attention was that individual elephants responded differently to calls made by other members of their species.
Researchers noticed that sometimes all elephants would respond to sounds made by another elephant. However, sometimes only an individual elephants would respond to such calls.
An Investigation Begins
After this discovery, researchers began to wonder whether these animals had a way of singling each other out.
To test their theory, scientists recorded vocalizations from over 100 elephants in Kenya. They then analyzed the audio using artificial intelligence (AI).
What Scientists Found
Co-author of the new study, Mickey Pardo, said, “What we were trying to do with that model is to see if we could predict who a call was addressed to just by the sound properties of the call.”
The AI model the researchers used correctly identified the elephant being addressed nearly 30% of the time – a figure that supported their initial theory.
Further Studies Prove Promising
Buoyed by their initial findings, researchers played to elephants recordings of noises that appeared to be addressed to them.
Pardo said, “We found that the elephants would react more strongly by making more vocalizations, calling back more readily, and approaching the speaker more readily in response to a call that was originally addressed to them.”
Why Have Elephants Developed Names For Each Other
It would seem that elephants refer to each other by specific names for the same reasons we do – to communicate as clearly as possible with each other.
Dr Joyce Poole, of ElephantVoices, said, “Elephants live in a pretty complex society. They’re quite a bit like ourselves [in that] families are not together all the time, they split up and come back together.” By giving each other names, elephants can call each other back when separated by large distances.
Elephant’s Secret Sound
When we think of elephants, we usually think of the loud trumpeting sound they often make. But these animals also make sounds that are not audible to the human ear.
Elephants communicate via infrasonic calls called rumbles. Recorded at frequencies as deep as 5Hz, these register well below the limits of our own hearing capabilities.
What Other Animals Give Each Other Names?
Although it is rare for animals to give each other individual names, elephants aren’t the first species known to do this.
Previously, it has been found that parakeets and dolphins also engage in this behavior. Dolphins also use signature whistles to identify themselves and mimic those whistles to get the attention of specific dolphins.
What Makes Elephants Unique?
While parakeets and dolphins also address each other by name, both use mimicry to form names. The same cannot be said for elephants.
“We found that there’s no evidence that elephants are imitating the calls of the receiver,” said Pardo. Pardo has hypothesized that elephants may gain their names from their mothers.
Previous Discoveries Demonstrate Elephant’s Intelligence
Earlier this year, observers noted another elephant behavior that suggested these intelligent animals aren’t as different from us as many assumed.
A March 2024 study found that elephants, like humans, bury their dead. Ultimately, these studies only further confirm the fascinating complexities of elephants. Undoubtedly, there is still so much more we have to learn about this majestic species.
