Elephants have a secret language that sounds like a primitive grunt

Giants are even smarter

A study has shown that elephants have their own secret language: giants make a low rumble to signal their buddies «Let's go.» Male African forest elephants, when joining together in groups, make a low roar, meaning it's time to leave.

Photo: Liliya Sharlovskaya

Elephants are already known for their intelligence levels that are astounding to humans, the Daily Mail reports. But new research suggests that males in groups are communicating a complex message, though to the human ear it sounds like a primitive grunt.

Adult male African elephants emit deep, resonant growls to their herd mates to signal it's time to move on, experts say.

A stunning audio recording by biologists shows that this so-called «let's get ready to fight» (the famous phrase patented by ring announcer Michael Buffer and used regularly before boxing matches) is repeated throughout the herd «like a quartet at a barbershop,» writes the Daily Mail.

Adult females are known to use the sounds, but the new recordings are the first to show the technique in males.

The new study was led by Caitlin O'Connell-Rodwell, a research scientist at Stanford University's Center for Conservation Biology. «These calls show us that there's a lot more going on in their vocal communication than was previously known,» she said.

The researchers studied African bush elephants (Loxodonta africana) at the Mushara waterhole in Etosha National Park, Namibia, one of the largest national parks in Africa.

Although the African forest elephant is a social mammal that moves in herds, these groups consist of females and their offspring. Males leave the herd when they reach maturity – around 10 to 19 years of age – and as adults, they usually live alone or in small «bachelor» groups.

In Etosha National Park, experts used recording equipment, including embedded microphones and night-vision cameras, to capture movements and sounds that are inaudible to the human ear. They noticed that a distinctive roar preceded the emergence from a waterhole, suggesting it was important.

Typically, the roar was made first by the oldest or most dominant male in the group, with other males repeating it as if in agreement. Each elephant waited until the previous call had finished before adding its own, creating a harmonious pattern, the Daily Mail reports.

The results are particularly surprising because males tend to have weak social bonds, according to O'Connell-Rodwell and her colleagues.

«We found that this vocal coordination occurs in groups of closely related individuals and is rare in weaker partners,» they said.

The «go» sounds observed in male elephants bear a striking resemblance to those previously recorded in female elephants.

In fact, the team suggests that male elephants likely learn the behavior at a young age, before leaving the herd.

«They grew up in a family where all the female leaders followed this ritual,» O'Connell-Rodwell said. «We think that as they get older and form their own groups, they adapt and use these learned behaviors to coordinate with other men.»

Unfortunately, African elephant populations have declined dramatically over the past century due to poaching, retaliatory killings for crop theft and habitat fragmentation.

Caution must be taken to avoid hunting older males with social bonds, as their removal can disrupt the social cohesion and mentoring structure of the elephant population, the Daily Mail reports.

Another recent study has found that African elephants call each other by name – in other words, they use unique sounds depending on which elephant they are interacting with.

The findings suggest that elephants may be capable of abstract thought, making them much more socially complex mammals than previously thought.