A team of scientists from Colorado State University, Save the Elephants and Elephant Voices used machine learning to: African savanna elephant (African brown) The calls included name-like elements that identified the intended recipient. When the authors played the recorded calls, the elephants responded positively to the calls, either by returning the call or by approaching the speaker.
Two young elephants greet each other in the Samburu National Reserve in Kenya. Image by George Wittemyer.
“Dolphins and parrots call each other by name, imitating each other's distinctive sounds,” says Dr. Michael Pardo, a postdoctoral researcher at Colorado State University and Save the Elephants.
“In contrast, our data suggest that elephants do not imitate the sounds of their mates when calling, but rather use a method that resembles the way humans communicate names.”
“The ability to learn to produce new sounds is unusual among animals, but it is necessary for identifying individuals by name.”
“Arbitrary communication, expressing ideas through sounds but not imitating them, greatly expands communication abilities and is considered a next-level cognitive skill.”
“If we could only make sounds that resembled what we say, our ability to communicate would be severely limited,” added George Wittemyer, a professor at Colorado State University and chairman of Save the Elephants' science committee.
“The use of arbitrary phonetic labels suggests that elephants may be capable of abstract thought.”
For their study, the researchers used machine learning techniques to analyze 469 recordings of rumbles made by wild female African elephant calves in the Samburu Buffalo Springs National Reserve in Amboseli National Park, Kenya, between 1986 and 2022.
The machine learning model correctly identified the recipient in 27.5% of these calls, which the researchers noted was a higher percentage than the model detected when control voice was input.
The researchers also compared the responses of 17 wild elephants to recordings of calls that were originally directed at them or at other elephants.
The researchers observed that the elephants approached the speaker playing the recordings more quickly and were more likely to respond vocally when they were called to, compared to when other elephants were called to.
This suggests that elephants recognise individual calls addressed to them.
“The discovery that elephants are not simply mimicking the calls of calling individuals is most intriguing,” said Dr. Kurt Fristrup, a researcher at Colorado State University.
“The ability to use arbitrary acoustic labels for other individuals suggests that other kinds of labels or descriptors may exist for elephant calls.”
The new insights revealed by this study into elephant cognition and communication reinforce the need to protect elephants.
Elephants are classified as follows: EndangeredThey are endangered due to poaching for their ivory and habitat loss due to development.
Due to their large size, they require a lot of space and can cause damage to property and pose a danger to people.
“Communicating with pachyderms is still a distant dream, but being able to communicate with them could be a game changer for their conservation,” Prof Wittemyer said.
“Living with elephants is difficult when you are trying to share the land but the elephants eat the crops.
“I want to warn them: 'Don't come here. If you come here, you will be killed.'”
a paper The findings were published in the journal. Natural Ecology and Evolution.
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MA Pardo othersAfrican elephants call out to each other by different names for each individual. Nat Ecol EvolPublished online June 10, 2024; doi: 10.1038/s41559-024-02420-w
Source: www.sci.news
