Elephant Talk: The Surprising Science of Elephant Communication
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
Mediterranean Sen MALI NIGER CHAD SENEGAL ERITREA AFRICA BURKINA FASO SUDAN TOGO BENIN BENIN GUINEA NIGERIA GUINEA BISSAU ETHIOPIA IVORY COAST GHANA CAMEROON CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC UGANDA SIERRA LEONE SOMALIA LIBERIA EQUTORIAL GUINEA KENYA GABON CONGO RWANDA DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO TANZANIA INDIAN OCEAN ATLANTIC OCEAN ANGOLA MALAWI ZAMBIA ZIMBABWE MOZAMBIQUE NAMBIA BOTSWANA AREAS WHERE AFRICAN ELEPHANTS LIVE SWAZILAND SOUTH AFRICA
ELEPHANT TALK A FOREST ELEPHANT In the Central African Republic in a remote forest near the border with Cameroon a small dark brown elephant with pink tusks is moving through the trees This is a forest elephant a member of a shy and still mysterious species She pauses at the edge of a clearing her adult eldest daughter and three calves of different ages gathered behind her One hundred elephants have gathered in this swampy place to drink and dig up the nutrient rich mud salts They have been dyed different pastel colors by the various muds they've wallowed in Using her sense of smell and perhaps recognizing the sounds of elephants she knows this elephant mother decides it's all right this is a family reunion As she leads her offspring into the clearing they are greeted by their relatives Sisters and aunts and cousins welcome the newcomers with noisy calls The calls are picked up by special recording equipment hidden high in the trees around the edges of the A group of African forest elephants digs up minerals from the mud in this forest clearing in the Central African Republic Their tusks are tinged pink from the minerals
A TALE OF THREE ELEPHANTS clearing The elephants don't know it but their very survival may depend on what researchers can learn from these recordings AN ASIAN ELEPHANT Thousands of miles away in a North American zoo a thirty four year old female Asian elephant called Daisy is beginning her own day This morning she is scheduled for a checkup by the zoo's head veterinarian Her keeper is worried that she might have injured her foot Daisy's ears swivel this way and that as she monitors the sounds around her Amid the excited buzz of a group of elementary school students on a field trip she detects a sound she recognizes She raises her head and stands very still to listen It's the motor of the electric jeep that brings the vet to the elephant barn Shortly thereafter she hears the vet greeting the elephant barn staff Daisy knows the vet's voice and the elephant gives an anxious rumble It is picked up by her elder sisters Magnolia and Orchid who offer sympathetic rumbles in retum Magnolia's three year old calf Zara thinks it is feeding time and wanders over to the gate to greet the keeper But Daisy is still anxious A forty year old Asian elephant named Bamboo receives a foot cleaning from her keeper at the Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle Washington
