Elephants, like humans, can call each other by name

A team of scientists from the University of Colorado, in a new paper published in the scientific journal Nature Ecology and Evolution, claimed that elephants call each other by name.

The ‘this surprising discovery is reported by The Economist.

Dr. Michael Pardo’s team conducted the study on two groups of Kenyan elephants that scientists have been observing for a long time: at Samburu (since 1997) and at Amboseli (since 1972).

“Names” that elephants use to greet and call are hidden in the details of low-frequency rumbles.

Such sounds can cause the ground to vibrate several kilometers away to keep in touch with out-of-sight group members.

The scientists analyzed thousands of such calls, along with information about who made them and to whom they were addressed.

They then ran them through a machine learning protocol that revealed patterns in the sound of the address can predict the specific addressee.

And the signals sent by a particular elephant to a particular recipient elephant were more similar to each other than the signals from that elephant to other recipients.

Signal-recipient elephants responded more strongly to calls originally addressed to them than to those originally intended for another animal.

It became known that calls directed by different elephants to the same recipient were more similar to each other than to other calls, suggesting that all elephants used the same name for the same recipient.