Tag Archives: elephants

Evidence Suggests Early Humans Began Hunting Elephants 1.8 Million Years Ago

Posted on by
Reply

Homo heidelbergensis hunting elephant

Ancient Humans Hunting Elephants—Evidence of Slaughtering Animals 1.8 Million Years Ago

Natural History Museum/Scientific Photography Library

Hunting an elephant is a formidable challenge, necessitating advanced tools and teamwork, offering an abundant source of protein.

A research team led by Manuel Dominguez-Rodrigo from Rice University in Texas suggests that ancient humans may have accomplished this feat approximately 1.78 million years ago in Tanzania’s Olduvai Gorge.

“Around 2 million years ago, our ancestors consistently consumed smaller game like gazelles and waterbucks but did not target larger prey,” says Dominguez-Rodrigo.

Later findings from Olduvai Gorge indicate a significant shift. This valley, abundant with both animal and human fossils formed over the past 2 million to 17,000 years, shows a marked increase in elephant and hippopotamus remains around 1.8 million years ago. However, establishing conclusive evidence of human involvement in hunting remains elusive.

In June 2022, Dominguez-Rodrigo and his team discovered what may be an ancient elephant slaughterhouse at Olduvai.

The site, dubbed the EAK site, revealed partial remains of an extinct elephant species, Elephas reki, surrounded by an array of stone tools that were much larger and sturdier than those utilized by hominins 2 million years ago. Dominguez-Rodrigo posits these tools were likely crafted by the ancient hominin Homo erectus.

“These include Pleistocene knives, known for their sharpness even today,” he notes, emphasizing their potential for butchering tasks.

Dominguez-Rodrigo and his colleagues believe these stone tools facilitated elephant slaughter. Some limb bones appear to have fractured shortly after the elephant’s demise, indicating the bones were still fresh or “green.” Unlike scavengers like hyenas that can strip meat, they can’t shatter the dense bone shafts of mature elephants.

“We discovered numerous bones in the field with fresh fractures, pointing to human use of hammer stones for processing,” he states. “These ‘green’ fractured bones are widespread in the 1.7-million-year-old landscape and bear distinct impact marks.”

However, there is a scarcity of cut marks on bones, which typically indicate butchering practices to extract meat.

It remains uncertain whether humans actively hunted the elephants or merely scavenged existing carcasses.

“What we can confirm is that they disassembled the bones—or portions of them—leaving behind tools and bones as evidence,” affirms Dominguez-Rodrigo.

He adds that the transition to hunting elephants wasn’t merely due to advancements in stone tools, but also hinted at an increase in social structure and cultural development among hominin groups.

However, Michael Pante, a researcher at Colorado State University, remains skeptical of the findings.

Pante contends that the evidence for human exploitation of this individual elephant is weak. The interpretation relies heavily on the proximity of stone tools and elephant remains, as well as the inferred fractures created by human attempts to access bone marrow.

Pante asserts that the earliest definitive evidence of hippo, giraffe, and elephant hunting in Olduvai dates back to around 80,000 years ago, as shown in the research of the 1.7-million-year-old HWK EE site.

“In contrast to the EAK site, the bones at HWK EE exhibit cut marks and are associated with thousands of other bones and artifacts within an archaeological context,” he explains.

Explore the World of Archaeology and Paleontology

New Scientist consistently covers remarkable archaeological sites around the globe, redefining our understanding of species and early civilizations. Consider taking a trip to explore these fascinating locations!

Topics:

Source: www.newscientist.com

New Research Reveals Asian Elephants Have Larger Brains Than Their African Relatives

Posted on by
Reply

Elephants are fascinating creatures. Despite their allure, our understanding of the elephant brain remains limited, and there are notable neuroanatomical differences between the Asian (Elephas Maximus) and African elephants (Loxodonta africana), which have largely gone unexplored. In a recent study, researchers from Humboldt Universität in Berlin and the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research collected numerous elephant brains to investigate the macroanatomical features that differentiate the species. Surprisingly, they found that Asian elephants possess a larger brain and greater grey matter volume than African elephants, an intriguing contrast given the smaller body size of Asian elephants.

Asian elephant in Myanmar. Image credit: John Jackson.

“The morphological distinctions among elephant species are well-documented,” stated Dr. Marav Schah from Humboldt Universität Berlin and his colleagues.

“For instance, African savanna elephants are larger and have bigger ears than their Asian counterparts.”

“It is also noted that only female African elephants grow larger tusks compared to the minimal tusks found in Asian females.”

“These disparities indicate significant genetic divergence between savanna elephants in Asia and Africa, believed to have arisen 50,000 to 8 million years ago.”

In this research, the team examined the brain weights and structures of both Asian and African elephants via dissections, existing literature, and MRI scans from wildlife and zoo animals.

The findings revealed that adult Asian elephants are significantly heavier than their African counterparts, whose brains average just over 4,400 grams.

This specific finding could not be definitively validated for male elephants, as data for the brain weights in Asian males is limited.

However, the cerebellum appears proportionately heavier in African elephants (22% of total brain body weight) compared to Asian elephants (19%).

Researchers also demonstrated that elephants undergo extensive postnatal brain growth.

By adulthood, an elephant’s brain is roughly three times heavier than at birth.

This indicates that elephants experience notably more brain growth than all primates; except for humans, where the brain weighs only about one-fifth of its final weight at birth.

A boy African elephant in Kenya. Image credit: George Wittemyer.

“The variance in brain weight is likely the most significant difference among these two elephant species,” Dr. Shah noted.

“This accounts for the behavioral variations observed between elephants in Asia and Africa.”

“For instance, the two species display markedly different interactions with humans.”

“Asian elephants have been partially domesticated for millennia and serve as working animals across various cultures and regions.”

“Conversely, only a handful of cases of partial domestication have been somewhat successful with African elephants.”

“It is considerably harder to integrate an African elephant into human society compared to an Asian elephant.”

The study was published today in the journal pnas nexus.

____

Marav Shah et al. 2025. The larger and relatively small cerebellum of Asian elephants compared to the African savanna elephants. pnas nexus 4(5): PGAF141; doi: 10.1093/pnasnexus/pgaf141

Source: www.sci.news

Elephants having fun with hoses: Showering and pranking each other

Posted on by
Reply

Elephants are masters of using hoses. A hose is considered a complex tool because of its flexibility, length, and the physical properties of the flowing water.

Researchers studying three Asian elephants (maximum elephas) The animals at the Berlin Zoo were amazed to see how agile they were with the hose and how to take a shower, and they seemed to understand how to get the most out of it. They appeared to be playing pranks on each other mid-shower by twisting the hose and squeezing it with their torsos to stop the flow.

To reach more distant parts of the body, elephants used a lasso-like technique, holding the hose far from the end and swinging it over their backs.

michael brecht The researchers at Humboldt University in Berlin said the elephants' behavior around the hose reminded them of children playing together.

“Elephants are very good at handling hoses, and we really wonder if this has something to do with the functional similarities between their trunks and hoses,” he says.

Just as humans are either left-handed or right-handed, African and Asian elephants are either left-handed or right-handed “trunkers,” preferring to bend their trunks in one direction. Researchers also noticed that elephants have a side preference when manipulating hoses. One of the elephants, named Mary, used her trunk to shower on the right side of her body, but used the hose more on the left side.

Another elephant named Anchali performed five different actions to block the flow of water when Mary tried to take a shower: positioning the hose, lifting it, twisting it, re-grabbing the twist, and compressing it. Showed.

“This sabotage-like behavior, if it's true at all, is only seen in a small number of animals,” Brecht said.

Brecht's previous research suggests that elephant trunks are one of the most sensitive body parts in the animal kingdom, allowing elephants to handle objects with a precision similar to that of human hands.

“This study reiterates the idea that elephants exhibit very sophisticated trunk behavior,” he says.

topic:

Source: www.newscientist.com

Elephants Were Targeted by Early Humans 1.8 Million Years Ago

Posted on by
Reply

Illustration of the Deinotherium genus, an animal that became extinct after the evolution of humans

Heinrich Harder/Florilegius/Alamy

An AI-powered analysis of thousands of fossils suggests that human hunting was the main factor behind the extinction of dozens of elephant-like species over the past two million years.

The study found that the extinction rate of these animals increased five-fold when early humans evolved about 1.8 million years ago, and then increased again when modern humans emerged. Today, only three species of elephants from this group remain.

“If early humans had never appeared, the number of species would probably still be increasing.” Torsten Hauffe At the University of Fribourg in Switzerland.

Hauffe said the number of species of elephant-like animals known as proboscideans, from the Latin word for “nose,” increased millions of years before humans arrived, probably due to the evolution of stronger teeth for eating grass.

By 1.8 million years ago, when the area began to overlap with early human habitats, there were about 30 species of organisms living in Africa. Deinotherium bozaciIt had downward-pointing, backward-facing fangs growing from its lower jaw. D. Bozaci It became extinct about 1 million years ago.

By the time modern humans began to spread across the world about 130,000 years ago, only 15 species of proboscideans remained. Most of these species had gone extinct, leaving only the Asian elephant, the African bush elephant, and the African forest elephant.

To find out why, Hauffe and his colleagues developed a statistical model that uses fossil finds to estimate how rates of extinction and speciation have changed over time, and the possible reasons for these changes.

Previous models of this kind have been limited to looking at only the impact of one factor, such as climate, but by using AI, the team’s model can estimate the relative contributions of many factors, Hauffe says. “We put it all together in one analysis.”

The study concluded that overlap with humans was the most important factor contributing to extinction, followed by geographical distribution and tooth and tusk shape. For example, species restricted to islands, such as the dwarf Sicilian elephant, Palaeoloxodon falconeri, They were much more likely to become extinct.

Climate change, which some believe is the primary cause of extinction, came in fourth after these other factors, so the findings support the overhunting hypothesis, which suggests that human hunting was the primary culprit, Hauffe said.

A computer modelling study of woolly rhinos carried out earlier this year found that Low levels of hunting can drive slow-breeding animals to extinction,To tell Stephen Chan The researcher, from the University of Helsinki in Finland, was not involved in the proboscidean study but helped compile some of the fossil data that was analyzed.

but, 2021 analysis of this data Zhang and his team concluded that while an early human impact with Earth was possible, the underlying cause was climatic.

What's clear, says Zhang, is that early humans didn’t suddenly wipe out proboscideans: “In fact, some of the most fascinating extinct elephant species emerged during this period, including the giant elephants.” Palaeoloxodon These include the giant mammoths of Eurasia, which stood 4 metres at the shoulder and weighed 25 tons, and the familiar woolly mammoths.

Where early humans slaughtered mammoths Palaeoloxodon The species dates back more than a million years, says Chang, “and both lineages have survived for the past 25,000 years alongside prehistoric humans with much more advanced cognitive and technological capabilities.”

topic:

Source: www.newscientist.com

Research: African elephants use individualized calls similar to nicknames to communicate with each other

Posted on by
Reply

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.

_____

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

New study uncovers how African elephants give each other distinct names

Posted on by
Reply

WASHINGTON — African elephants communicate through calls and respond to their own names, a behavior rarely observed in the wild, according to a new study published Monday.

These names are embedded in the elephants’ distinctive low-pitched vocalizations that carry across the savanna, suggesting that animals with intricate social structures, where family units frequently disband and reunite, are more likely to have individual names.

Ecologist Stuart Pimm from Duke University, who was not involved in the study, remarked, “If you’re managing a large family, you need to be able to call out, ‘Hey, Virginia, come over here!'”

The phenomenon of animals calling each other by name is exceptionally rare in the wild. Humans have names, allowing us to call out to others, and pets like dogs also respond to their names. Baby Dolphin Birds have their own unique names, known as signature whistles, while parrots may also utilize names.

These named species possess the ability to learn and produce distinct sounds throughout their lives, a skill elephants also share.

Biologists conducted research on wild ecology and evolution using machine learning to identify name usage in audio recordings of savanna elephant vocalizations captured in Kenya’s Samburu National Reserve and Amboseli National Park.

By observing the elephants from vehicles, researchers were able to determine which elephants were calling and responding to each other, such as a mother calling for her calf or an older female reaching out to a stray elephant later rejoining the group.

The computer model, analyzing the audio data likely containing names, accurately predicted the addressed elephant 28% of the time, compared to just 8% with meaningless data.

Lead author Mickey Pardo, a biologist at Cornell University, explained, “Like humans, elephants utilize names, but we can’t rely on them entirely as they likely don’t use names in the majority of their vocalizations.”

Elephants incorporate sounds beyond the human hearing range in their calls, leaving scientists uncertain about the specific vocal components that form an elephant’s name.

To validate their findings, researchers played the recordings to individual elephants. The elephants showed heightened responses, including ear flapping and trunk lifting, to recordings containing their names. Some elephants even disregarded vocalizations meant for other elephants.

“Elephants are highly social beings, constantly communicating and interacting, and this system of naming could be a fundamental aspect of their communication abilities,” noted co-author George Wittemyer, an ecologist at Colorado State University and a science advisor for Save the Elephants.

“We’ve provided a glimpse into the elephant’s cognitive world.”

Source: www.nbcnews.com

Elephants appear to create names for one another

Posted on by
Reply

Two young elephants greet each other in Kenya's Samburu National Reserve

George Wittemyer

Elephants may be the only animals other than humans that give each other random names, according to a machine learning analysis of recordings.

The analysis revealed that the African savanna elephant (African brown) appears to contain a name-like element that is unique to certain individuals. Moreover, those individuals know their own names and respond more strongly than others when a call addressed to them is played over a speaker.

“For years we've observed that when elephants make contact calls, one elephant in the group will raise his head, listen and respond,” says Joyce Poole. Elephant Voice“And the other elephants seemed to be ignoring him, so we wondered if the call was directed at one particular individual,” said Bryan G. Gregg, a small organization that aims to study and protect elephants.

More than 600 recordings made by Poole and others are currently being analyzed. Michael Pardo Researchers at Colorado State University applied the recordings to analyze elephant calls, including contact calls made when an elephant moves out of sight and greeting calls made when an elephant approaches another. The researchers knew which individual called out to each elephant and responded to each call.

The team's software was able to predict which individual was being spoken to in a quarter of cases, doing much better than chance.

The researchers then played some of the rumbling sounds to elephant pairs, including one that was “named,” and found that the named elephant responded more strongly, approaching the speaker faster, making quicker responses, and emitting more calls than its unnamed counterpart.

Dolphins and some bird species have been known to mimic the calls of calling animals to attract specific individuals. Elephants can learn to imitate soundsHowever, the team found no evidence that the elephants were imitating each other.

In other words, they appear to use arbitrary sounds as names, just like humans do, Poole said.

The analysis revealed whether different elephants share the same names for certain individuals, and each elephant may have its own unique name for the others.

“We have official names, but different people may call the same person by different nicknames,” Poole said. “That could be it. I guess we just don't know yet.”

“This is a very interesting study because there is evidence suggesting that not only do African elephants produce individual-specific vocalizations – which is commonly reported in many species – but, more importantly, that they respond specifically when they hear individual-specific vocalizations made by other elephants,” he says. Daniel Blumstein At the University of California, Los Angeles.

“The idea that elephants can use individually distinct vocalizations to attract specific individuals is novel and provocative, opening the door to a more nuanced understanding of the rich social lives of these animals,” he says.

“I think this result is very reasonable.” Torsten Balsby At Aarhus University in Denmark.

Balsby studies parrots that live in much larger groups, and he notes that learning names would be much harder in a large group of hundreds or thousands of birds. “Mimicking talking to other individuals is a simpler solution that doesn't require prior interaction,” he says.

A 2005 study reported that captive green parrots “vocally label” — or give names to — their peers, Balsby says. But they did so with different versions of contact calls, “so it may not be as arbitrary as elephants',” Balsby says.

Poole believes her work is just the beginning in understanding elephant communication: “Elephant communication has many complex layers that will take time to unravel, so I expect there will be many more exciting discoveries to come in the coming years,” she says.

For example, she thinks elephants might use place names: “When elephants make 'let's go' rumbles to indicate to other elephants in the herd which way they want to go, they may actually be telling them exactly where they want to go,” Poole says.

topic:

Source: www.newscientist.com

One hundred elephants die in drought-stricken park in Zimbabwe

Posted on by
Reply

Zimbabwe’s largest national park has seen the death of at least 100 elephants in recent weeks due to drought, a grim indication of the impact of climate change and the El Niño phenomenon.

Wildlife officials and conservation groups fear more deaths as parts of southern Africa, including Hwange National Park, anticipate decreased rainfall and warmer temperatures. The International Fund for Animal Welfare has labeled this a crisis for elephants and other wildlife.

Tinashe Farawo, spokesperson for the Zimbabwe National Parks and Wildlife Management Authority, stated, “El Niño conditions are exacerbating an already dire situation.”

El Niño is a natural weather event that warms parts of the Pacific Ocean and affects global weather patterns. This year’s El Niño has also brought about deadly flooding. Forecasters expect below-average rainfall across southern Africa into East Africa.

Zimbabwe has already experienced a delayed start to the rainy season, with below-average rainfall predicted for the summer. Experts believe climate change has strengthened the El Niño phenomenon, resulting in more severe consequences.

Authorities are worried about a repeat of 2019 when over 200 elephants died in Hwange due to severe drought.

Philippe Kwawoga, program director at the International Fund for Animal Welfare, alerted authorities to the situation in Hwange in a recent report.

According to research, longer and more severe dry periods have become more frequent in Zimbabwe in recent years. Trevor Lane of the B-Jane Trust, a conservation organization, stated, “El Niño could soon bring back sunshine as rainfall in our region has significantly reduced.”

The B-Jane Trust has been working to help by pumping 1.5 million liters of water per day to the Hwange waterhole from more than 50 wells it manages in partnership with the Parks Department.

Conservationists emphasize that saving elephants is not only about the animals themselves. They play a crucial role in forest regeneration and are key allies in the fight against climate change through their impact on ecosystems.

“They play a much bigger role in forest regeneration than humans,” Lane says, “That’s one of the reasons we fight to keep elephants alive.”

Source: www.nbcnews.com

Neanderthals were prolific in exploiting straight-tusked elephants, say archaeologists

Posted on by
Reply

Archaeologists from MONREPOS, the Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz, and the University of Leiden recently discovered that straight-tusked elephants were hunted some 125,000 years ago (Paleoloxodon Antique) was the largest land mammal of the Pleistocene and was part of the behavioral repertoire of Neanderthals for dozens of generations. This knowledge is based on data from only one of his locations, a northern European lakeside. In a new paper, the researchers present data from two other contemporary sites on the Nordic plains, where they demonstrate that elephant exploitation was a widespread phenomenon. The vast amounts of food produced by slaughter operations aimed at large-scale exploitation of carcasses suggest that Neanderthals were somehow preserving food or, at least temporarily, working in larger groups than is generally acknowledged. This suggests that it was active.

Reconstructed living appearance of a straight-tusked elephant (Paleoloxodon Antique) Side view (top) and front view (bottom) based on remains excavated from the Neumark Nord 1 site in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. Image credit: Su Shuyu.

“125,000 years ago, Neanderthals hunted and slaughtered straight-tusked elephants, the largest land mammals of the Pleistocene, in the lake landscapes of the Nordic plains,” said lead author Sabine Gaudzinski-Windho. Professor Iser and colleagues said.

“The data from this site is so far unique in the archaeological record, with evidence highlighting adult males and their widespread use.”

“Given its relevance to our knowledge of the Neanderthal niche, we wonder if Neumark Nord subsistence practices were more than just a local phenomenon, and perhaps determined by local features. I investigated.”

In the new study, scientists analyzed the remains of straight-tusked elephants from two other archaeological sites on the Nordic plains, Grebern and Taubach.

They identified slaughter patterns in both populations similar to the Neumark Nord site.

“The results of the examination of the Greyburn and Taubach bones indicate that the hunting of these elephants by Neanderthals was not an isolated phenomenon and must have been a more regular activity,” Gaudzinski-Windho said. Professor Iser said.

Reconstruction of Lake Schöningen shore when humans discovered the carcass of a straight-legged elephant. Image credit: Benoit Clarys.

Straight-tusked elephants were the largest land mammals of the Pleistocene and lived in Europe and western Asia from 800,000 to 100,000 years ago.

These animals had very broad heads and very long tusks, making them approximately three times larger than modern Asian elephants, twice as large as African elephants, and much larger than woolly mammoths.

Maximum shoulder height is estimated to be 3–4.2 m (10–14 ft) for females and males, respectively, and weight between 4.5 and 13 tons.

“The meat and fat provided by the adult body are Paleoloxodon Antique “The bull would have been enough to meet the daily caloric intake of at least 2,500 adult Neanderthals,” said Professor Gaudzinski-Windhauser.

“This is an important number because it provides us with new insights into Neanderthal behavior.”

“For example, previous research generally assumed that Neanderthals lived in groups of 20 or fewer.”

“However, the information we currently have about the systematic exploitation of straight-breasted elephants suggests that Neanderthals may have gathered, at least temporarily, in larger groups, or that they had developed techniques that allowed them to preserve and store large amounts of food. This suggests that he must have done both.”

“Follow-up projects will explore how Neanderthals hunted these giant elephants and how their hunting activities affected these and other prey animals and their environments. I would like to learn more about this.”

of the team paper Published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

_____

Sabine Gaudzinski-Windhauser other. 2023. Extensive evidence of Neanderthal exploitation of elephants during the last interglacial period on the Nordic plains. PNAS 120 (50): e2309427120; doi: 10.1073/pnas.2309427120

Source: www.sci.news