A Sentience Article from All-Creatures.org

Elephants call each other by unique names

From Amy Jones, SpeciesUnite.com
June 2024

Scientists used an AI algorithm to discover that elephants are the first non-human animals identified to communicate with each other using individual name-like sounds. 

Elephants create individual, name-like calls for each other using rumbles and grumbles, according to a new study.

Researchers from Colorado State University (CSU), in collaboration with Save the Elephants and ElephantVoices, used an artificial intelligence algorithm to analyze the calls of two wild herds of African savanna elephants in Kenya.

“They have this ability to individually call specific members of their family with a unique call,” said Michael Pardo, an acoustic biologist at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and an author of a study published Monday in the journal Nature Ecology & Evolution.

Animals, like dolphins and parrots, are known to imitate the sounds of others, but this remarkable discovery makes elephants the first non-human animals known to use unique names to communicate with each other.

The researcher’s findings “not only shows that elephants use specific vocalisations for each individual, but that they recognise and react to a call addressed to them while ignoring those addressed to others”, said Dr Pardo.

“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.”

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Please read the ENTIRE ARTICLE HERE.

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Posted on All-Creatures.org: June 26, 2024
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