Elephants engage in ‘conversations’ to coordinate action

[timmy]

This article is from the Deccan Herald here:

http://www.deccanherald.com/content/282 ... ction.html

Elephants engage in ‘conversations’ to coordinate action

Washington, October 3, 2012, Agencies:
Jumbo talk

Elephants use well-coordinated ‘conversations’ to initiate cooperation within a group, according to a study. In the wilds of Africa, when it’s time for a family of elephants gathered at a watering hole to leave, the matriarch of the group gives the “let’ s-go rumble” – as it’s referred to in scientific literature – kicking off a coordinated and well-timed conversation, of sorts, between the leaders of the clan.

First, the head honcho moves away from the group, turns her back and gives a long, slightly modulated and — to human ears — soft rumble while steadily flapping her ears. This spurs a series of back and forth vocalisations, or rumbles, within the group before the entire family finally departs.

The use of “rumbles” to initiate departure helps explain the group’s ability to work together to achieve more complicated tasks, such as rescue operations to save a calf from drowning.

“These vocalisations facilitate the bonds between the elephants to be able to work together. It’s the measure of an organised society. It demonstrates how another social animal grouping organises itself through vocalisations,” said lead author Caitlin O’Connell-Rodwell, PhD, a field biologist and instructor in otolaryngology at the Stanford University School of Medicine.

The study also indicates how this behaviour uses rumbles in a structured way to transmit signals longer distances both through the air and through ground vibrations that could alert other elephant family groups not to approach the watering hole until they’re gone, thus avoiding the mass chaos of too many large, noisy bodies at the same watering hole at the same time.

“I’ve seen 200 to 300 elephants at the same watering hole at one time before. There’s a lot of vocalisation and pushing and shoving and screaming and roaring. You can see why they’d want to avoid that,” said O’Connell-Rodwell.

She has studied the elephants of the Mushara area of Etosha National Park in Namibia for 20 years, spending most of her summers hunkered down in a bunker or perched atop a tower cataloging more than 170 identified bulls and more than 15 family groups.