Elephant Talk: The Surprising Science of Elephant Communication
INTRODUCTION A TALE OF THREE ELEPHANTS
A SAVANNA ELEPHANT It It is early morning in Amboseli National Park in Kenya Africa A baby elephant hurries to keep up with his mother and sisters and aunts as the herd moves out following the eldest female to a stand of acacia trees They will spend the morning browsing on acacia bark and grass As the herd raises a cloud of red dust white cattle egrets hitch a ride on the rolling shoulders of the massive animals This herd belongs to one of two species of African elephant the savanna elephant named for the grasslands on which they live The week old calf is still figuring out how to put one foot in front of the other Now and then he stumbles and trips over his trunk which dangles limply between his front feet But already he is part of the herd a rich and complex society This is a herd of African savanna elephants a species that lives on the grasslands of Africa This photograph was taken in Amboseli National Park in Kenya
ELEPHANT TALK RIGHT A baby elephant follows its mother across the savanna in Amboseli It will learn lots of ways to communicate by observing members of its herd BELOW A savanna elephant flaps its large ears The calf knows the members of his large family by their scent He is beginning to learn the meaning of their calls as well as their body language a curled trunk a nod or a flapping ear His brain is gathering and processing information about his herd his environment and other animals He will have an elephant's unique combination of senses to do this and be aided much like a human baby by a long childhood in a close knit society As he grows to adulthood his brain will triple in size He is built to learn
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