Elephants are capable of detecting threats and produce alarm calls in response, a new study finds.
The findings were made after researchers from Oxford University, Save the Elephants, and Disney's Animal Kingdom conducted audio experiments on wild elephants of Kenya. The resting animals were made to hear recordings of the voices of the Samburu, a local tribe from North Kenya.
Researchers observed that as soon as the elephants heard the recording; they reacted by running away from the sound whilst emitting a distinctive low rumble. They also became more vigilant, according to a press release.
The sound made by the elephants were recorded and played back to another set of elephants. Surprisingly, these elephants also reacted in the same way as the first bunch reacted on hearing the Samburu's voices. They ran away and were found searching for potentially lethal threat of human hunters.
"Elephants appear to be able to manipulate their vocal tract (mouth, tongue, trunk and so on) to shape the sounds of their rumbles to make different alarm calls," said Dr Lucy King of Save the Elephants and Oxford University, in the statement.
"We concede the possibility that these alarm calls are simply a by-product of elephants running away, that is, just an emotional response to the threat that other elephants pick up on," King continued. "On the other hand, we think it is also possible that the rumble alarms are akin to words in human language, and that elephants voluntarily and purposefully make those alarm calls to warn others about specific threats. Our research results here show that African elephant alarm calls can differentiate between two types of threat and reflect the level of urgency of that threat."
Researchers speculated that these alarm calls may be a way elephants use to coordinate group movements and warn nearby elephants or a lesson to teach younger elephants how to be more aware.
The findings of this new study bear some similarities with another study conducted on how elephants send out warning signals when bees attack. Researchers noticed that the reaction to the human alarm call didn't include any head-shaking behavior displayed by elephants hearing the bee alarm. When threatened by bees, elephants shake their heads in an effort to knock the insects away as well as to run.
Researchers noted that both these studies are being used to reduce human-elephant conflict in Kenya.
"In this way, local farmers can protect their families and livelihoods without direct conflict with elephants, and they can harvest the honey too for extra income," King said. "Learning more about how elephants react to threats such as bees and humans will help us design strategies to reduce human-elephant conflict and protect people and elephants."
The study was funded by The Disney's Worldwide Conservation Fund and the Disney's Animal Kingdom Cast Conservation Program. Findings were published in PLOS.
