John Taylor, Professor of Economics at Stanford University and developer of the "Taylor Rule" for setting interest rates | Stanford University
John Taylor, Professor of Economics at Stanford University and developer of the "Taylor Rule" for setting interest rates | Stanford University
The bull elephants gather in the evening coolness to drink. After a spell, a senior male lifts his head and turns from the waterhole. With ears flapping gently, he lets out a deep, resonant rumble.
One by one, the others respond, their voices overlapping in a sonorous, infrasonic chorus that whispers across the savanna. This elephant barbershop quartet conveys a clear message: It’s time to move on.
Gradually, the elephants shift, their massive bodies swaying as they follow their rumbling leader to the next stop on their nocturnal wanderings.
For the first time, scientists from Stanford University and other institutions have documented male elephants using “let’s go” rumbles to signal the start of group departures from the Mushara waterhole in Etosha National Park, Namibia. The vocalizations are initiated by the most socially integrated and often dominant males in close-knit social groups.
The findings, detailed in the open-access journal PeerJ, are surprising because this behavior was previously thought to be exclusive to female elephants in family groups.
“We were astonished to find that male elephants, typically considered to have loose social ties, engage in such sophisticated vocal coordination to trigger action,” said study lead author Caitlin O’Connell-Rodwell, a research associate at Stanford University’s Center for Conservation Biology. “These calls show us that there’s much more going on within their vocal communication than has previously been known.”
O’Connell-Rodwell first recorded the male “let’s go” rumble in 2004 while conducting fieldwork at night to understand how elephant vocalizations propagate through the ground. “I was so excited when I managed to record it,” she recalled. “It was thrilling to realize that these males were using complex vocal coordination like the females were.”
From 2005 to 2017, the team collected data at the Mushara waterhole primarily during dry seasons. They used high-tech recording equipment including buried microphones and night-vision video cameras to capture infrasonic vocalizations inaudible to human ears and behaviors of male elephants.
The researchers analyzed the vocalizations for acoustic properties and patterns and used social network analysis to understand relationships and hierarchy among males. They noted which elephants initiated rumbles, how others responded, and sequences leading to coordinated departures.
The “let’s go” rumbles observed in male elephants bear striking similarities to those previously recorded in female elephants. O’Connell-Rodwell and her team hypothesize that male elephants likely learn this behavior when young.
“They grew up in a family where all female leaders were engaging in this ritual,” O’Connell-Rodwell said. “We think that as they mature and form their own groups they adapt and use these learned behaviors to coordinate with other males.”
In both cases of male and female elephants initiating calls is followed by another individual’s rumble with each waiting for preceding calls nearly finish before adding their voice creating harmonious turn-taking pattern akin barbershop quartet according O’Connell-Rodwell said.
“It’s very synchronized and ritualized. When one goes high another goes low coordinating within this vocal space,” she explained.
This study follows another groundbreaking study using AI revealing wild elephants have unique names indicating use nouns communication.
“In our paper we show that elephants are using verbs form ‘let's go’ rumble if noun-verb combinations together syntax language,” O’Connell-Rodwell said.
Additionally linguistic insights reveal some dominant male roles crucial maintaining cohesion stability within social groups taking mentoring roles caring needy young always wanting physical contact guiding sharing resources partaking emotional ups downs added care should taken avoid hunting older socially connected disrupting structures populations countries allowing hunting suggested strong bonds interactions essential well-being captive semi-captive highlighting need supporting environments findings underscore complexity richness lives advance understanding use ritual coordination moving closer idea language concluded
Charlene Gage Media Relations cgage@stanford.edu
©CopyrightStanford University Stanford California
Alerts Sign-up