Elephantsuseinvocationswhencommunicatingwith their fellows,whichisakindofname-calling. An unusualstudy was conducted by an internationalgroup of scientistsobservingthebehavior of theseanimalsin the Samburu,BuffaloSpringsandAmboseliNationalParksinKenyabetween1986 and 2022.AccordingtoMichaelPardo, a behavioralecologist at theUniversity of Colorado, elephants,as it turned out,calleachother by individualnames,likehumans,and come up with nicknamesfortheirfellows. The studyalsoconfirmedthattheseanimals are notinclined to imitatevoicesandsounds,asparrotsandbottlenosedolphins do.In the course of the study, scientistsused an artificialintelligencealgorithmtoanalyze the calls of twoherds of wildelephants in the Africansavannah."Elephantsusespecificsoundsforeachindividual,theyrecognizeandrespondtopersonalcalls,whileignoringcallsaddressedtootherindividuals," the scientistexplained."Theycandetermineifanappeal is addressed to them just by hearingit,evenifit is taken outofcontext."Inhisopinion,elephantcommunicationmaybemorecomplexthanpreviously thought.Tocometosuchconclusions, the researchersstudied the "buzz" of elephantsusing a machinelearningalgorithmand were able to identify469differentcalls,including101appealsand117calls of response."Rumblingsoundscarryinformationintendedonlyfor a specificelephant,"headded.
The study, the results of whichwerepublishedin the journalNatureEcology&Evolution,showedthatadultanimalsusenames more oftenthanyoung ones,whichsuggeststhat it cantakeyearstolearnthistalent. The mostcommonappealwas"rich,harmonious, low-frequencysound," the researchersnote."When a recording was playedinwhich an elephantaddressedafriendorfamilymember, the animalreactedpositively,butthesameelephantshowedmuchlessenthusiasmwhenaddressingothers,and the elephants did notjustimitate the recipient's call,whichsuggeststhattheyandhumansare the onlyknownanimalsthatinventeachother."names,"andnotjustcopy the voice of anotheranimal,"thestudysays."The evidencepresentedthatelephantsuseunlimitedvocalizationstonameotherssuggeststhattheyhave the abilityto think abstractly,"saidGeorgWittmayer,seniorauthor of the study.According to FrankPope,CEOofSavetheElephants, despitethedifferences,humansandelephantshave a lot in common,inparticular,"extendedfamilyunitswith a richsociallifesupported by a highly developed brain."
A guest at a coastal Dutch hotel found a seal in her room on her birthday. Upon returning from a walk, the woman saw a large gray seal peacefully sleeping on the floor of her room
Experts from the Kamchatka branch of the FITs Unified Geophysical Service of the Russian Academy of Sciences have discovered signs of an impending eruption of the Bezymyanny volcano
Blogs
