A team of scientists from Colorado State University, Save the Elephants and ElephantVoices used machine learning to confirm that calls of African savannah elephants (Loxodonta africana) contained a name-like component identifying the intended recipient. When the authors played back recorded calls, the elephants responded affirmatively to calls that were addressed to them by calling back or approaching the speaker.<\/p>\n
\u201cDolphins and parrots call one another by \u2018name\u2019 by imitating the signature call of the addressee,\u201d said Dr. Michael Pardo, a postdoctoral researcher at Colorado State University and Save the Elephants.<\/p>\n
\u201cBy contrast, our data suggest that elephants do not rely on imitation of the receiver\u2019s calls to address one another, which is more similar to the way in which human names work.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe ability to learn to produce new sounds is uncommon among animals but necessary for identifying individuals by name.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cArbitrary communication \u2014 where a sound represents an idea but does not imitate it \u2014 greatly expands communication capability and is considered a next-level cognitive skill.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIf all we could do was make noises that sounded like what we were talking about, it would vastly limit our ability to communicate,\u201d added Colorado State University\u2019s Professor George Wittemyer, chairman of the scientific board of Save the Elephants.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe use of arbitrary vocal labels indicates that elephants may be capable of abstract thought.\u201d<\/p>\n
In their study, the researchers used machine-learning methods to analyze recordings of 469 calls (rumbles) made by wild African elephant female-offspring groups in the Amboseli National Park and Samburu and Buffalo Springs National Reserves in Kenya between 1986 and 2022.<\/p>\n
The machine-learning model correctly identified the recipients of 27.5% of these calls, which they note is a higher percentage than the model detected when being fed a control audio.<\/p>\n
They also compared the reactions of 17 wild elephants in response to recordings of calls that were either originally addressed to them or another elephant.<\/p>\n
They observed that elephants approached the speaker playing the recordings more quickly and responded more vocally in response to calls originally addressed to them, compared to those originally addressed to another elephant.<\/p>\n
This suggests that elephants recognize individual calls addressed to them.<\/p>\n