A special talent can take years to master
Elephants call each other by their first names, a new study has found. Researchers used an artificial intelligence algorithm to analyze the calls of two herds of African savannah elephants in Kenya.
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According to a new study, elephants address each other using individual names that they come up with for their long-eared, pachyderm cousins, reports Agence France-Press.
Researchers have suggested that while dolphins and parrots address each other to each other, imitate sounds made by other members of their species, elephants are the first known non-human animals to use names that do not involve imitation.
In a new study published Monday, a team of international researchers used an artificial intelligence algorithm to analyze the calls of two wild herds of African savannah elephants in Kenya.
The study “not only shows that elephants use individual vocalizations, but also that they recognize and respond to calls made to them, ignoring those addressed to others,” said lead author of the study Michael Pardo.
“This indicates that elephants can determine whether a call is intended for them simply by hearing it, even if it does not fit the original context,” the behavioral ecologist at Colorado State University said in a statement.
The researchers analyzed the “rumble” elephants recorded in Kenya's Samburu National Game Reserve and Amboseli National Park between 1986 and 2022.
Using a machine learning algorithm, they identified 469 different calls, including 101 elephants making calls and 117 receiving calls. .
Elephants make a wide range of sounds, from a loud trumpeting sound to a rumble so low that the human ear cannot hear it.
Elephant calls did not always use names. But when they were named, it was often over a long distance, with adults referring to young elephant calves.
Adults were also more likely to use names than calves, suggesting this special talent can take years to master.
According to a study published in the journal Nature Ecology & Evolution, the most common name was «a harmoniously rich, low-frequency sound.»
When the researchers played an elephant a recording of a friend or family member calling them by name, the animal responded positively and “ energetically.
But that same elephant showed much less enthusiasm when other people's names were played to him.
Unlike those mischievous parrots and dolphins, elephants did not simply imitate the call of the one who they called.
This suggests that elephants and humans are the only animals known to invent “arbitrary” names, rather than simply copying the sound the recipient says.
“The evidence presented here that elephants use non-imitative sounds to refer to other people indicates that they have the capacity for abstract thought,” said senior study author George Wittemyer.
The researchers called for further research into the evolutionary origins of this talent for name-calling, given that elephants' ancestors diverged from primates and cetaceans about 90 million years ago.
“Despite our differences, humans and elephants have many similarities, such as large families with rich social lives, supported by highly developed brains,” said Save the Elephants CEO Frank Pope. – The fact that elephants call each other by name is most likely only the beginning of future discoveries.