African elephants have individual name-like calls for each other, similar to human names, study finds

It turns out that humans may not be the only species that have individualized identifiers between them. A new study has found that African savannah elephants, an endangered species, have similar names to each other that resemble human names – a discovery that potentially “radically expands the expressed power of language evolution.”

The researchers analyzed the rumble – “a harmonically rich, low-frequency sound that is individually distinctive” – of African savannah elephants, listed as threatened with extinction on the IUCN Red List as populations continue to decline, largely due to poaching and land development. Specifically, researchers analyzed 469 messages of three different types – contact, greeting and care – from groups of female descendants between 1986 and 2022. Using a machine learning model, they identified the recipients of more than 27% of these calls.

These elephants are known to travel with family units of around 10 females and their calves, and multiple family units often combine to form a “clan,” according to the World Wildlife Fund, with males only appearing during mating.

The researchers also analyzed the reactions of 17 wild elephants to recordings of calls addressed to them or another elephant. Elephants that listened to recordings addressed to them had faster, more vocal responses than those that listened to recordings addressed to other elephants, the researchers found.

And what they discovered is that elephants — the largest terrestrial species in the world, according to World Wildlife Fund – in fact have individual vocal identifiers, “a phenomenon previously known to occur only in human language”. Other animals known to use vocal labels, such as parakeets and dolphins, only do so through imitation, researchers said in the study, which was published Monday in the journal Nature Ecology and Evolution.

Videos shared by researchers show how elephants respond to recordings of calls made to them. In one, an elephant named Margaret appears to almost immediately perk up to a booming recording directed at her. In the caption of the video, the researchers said that she “raises her head immediately and responds after a few seconds.” A separate video shows Margaret raising her head to a call directed at another elephant, but not responding.

Another elephant named Donatella shows the animal issuing a call response after hearing her name and approaching the recording.

More research into these observations is needed, the study authors said, especially to better understand the context surrounding the calls. But so far, these results have “significant implications for elephant cognition, since inventing or learning sounds to address each other suggests the capacity for some degree of symbolic thought,” they said.

African savannah elephants are found in nearly two dozen countries, including Botswana, Zimbabwe, Tanzania, Kenya, Namibia, Zambia, and South Africa. As of 2021, this species, as well as its close relative, the African forest elephant, received degraded conservation status.

According to the IUCN, the forest elephant species has been downgraded to the critically endangered category, while the savannah elephant has been downgraded to critically endangered status. listed as threatened, whereas before both species were “treated as a single species” classified as vulnerable. The new statute came after the discovery that forest elephant populations had declined by more than 86% over 31 years, while savannah elephants had declined by at least 60% in half a century.

“With persistent demand for ivory and growing human pressures on Africa’s wild lands, concern for Africa’s elephants is great, and the need to creatively conserve and wisely manage these animals and their habitats is more acute than ever. ,” said advisor and African elephant expert Kathleen Gobush. said at the time.