Elephants use special sounds to assign names to each other and call one another by name, a capability previously believed to be unique to humans. This new discovery has just been published in the journal Nature Ecology & Evolution.
Scientists at the University of Colorado (USA) conducted research on elephant herds in the Samburu National Reserve and Amboseli National Park in Kenya from 1986 to 2022. The study not only demonstrated that elephants use distinct sounds to name each other, but also that they recognize and respond when called by name.
Two forest elephants competing in Bayanga Forest, Dzanga Sangha Reserve, southwestern Central African Republic. (Photo credit: AFP/TTXVN).
Using an artificial intelligence algorithm to analyze elephant calls, the research team identified 469 distinct calls, involving 101 elephants producing calls and 117 responding to calls.
Elephants typically produce a variety of sounds, ranging from loud trumpets to low rumbles that are inaudible to humans. The research findings indicate that elephants do not always call each other by name; rather, they tend to call each other by name when at a distance, often with adult elephants calling the young ones. This suggests that this special ability may take years to develop.
When researchers played a recording of a call made by a friend or family member to an elephant, the elephant reacted positively and eagerly. However, the same elephant showed indifference when it heard calls made to other elephants.
Thus, unlike parrots and dolphins, elephants do not simply mimic each other’s calls; they are capable of naming each other and calling one another by those names. Besides humans, elephants are the only mammals known to possess this ability, indicating their capacity for abstract thought.
Scientists are calling for further research into the evolutionary origins of this naming ability, as the ancestors of elephants diverged from primates and crustaceans about 90 million years ago.
Mr. Frank Pope, the executive director of Save the Elephants, noted that elephants calling each other by name could just be the beginning of exciting scientific discoveries in the future.
