COLUMN:IN THE WILD. How the super sense of African elephants works

BY better understanding of an elephant’s view of the world we can become more aware of how amazing these animals really are.

The African elephant is an intelligent animal mammal, kind and helpful to other dwellers of the savannah.

Scientists say experiments with reasoning and learning show that they are the smartest ungulates together with their Asian cousins and this is mostly due to their large brain.

Scientists say among the long list of mammals who dwell in the vast tropical savannah of Africa, the structure of elephant’s brain has a unique complexity which is compared with that of human brain.

Powered by this kind of brain, elephants are able to communicate with different signs through different movements of their tails, ears, legs and the flexible trunk on the head.

Among elephants, communication is born out of complex signs which help them to discuss, agree or disagree on different issues which may unify or cause problems and force some conservative members to go out of the group.

Scientists say because of customs and longtime friendship, some troublemakers don’t stay away for a long time because after learning their lesson they normally return to the natal group which always welcomes them back.

For good intention, existing members will always blow joyful rumbles and erect their trunk high in the sky to welcome back their sisters and brothers who may be sorry for themselves because of foolish pride and prejudice.

These welcoming rituals are always preceded by identification parade which is done through chemical procedure which through sniffing identify unique substance with odor from the temporal gland, but to rebuild unity in the group, these ceremonies are accomplished by shaking and tossing of their tusks.

Chemical communication is the use of the trunk.

The elephant will lift its trunk to smell the air or root around the floor usually searching for urine spots and urine trails.

Tactile communication usually involves the whole body, feet, tail, ears, trunk and tusks and is mostly to do with touch.

An elephant will use its tusks to provoke aggression or to lift a baby elephant out of a mud wallow.

The rubbing together of ears shows affection.

Depending on how the elephant moves and uses its body parts depicts the mood of the animal.

Such moods and body movements show if the elephant is angry, happy, anti-predator, parental, excited or sad.

Every observation of the elephant senses shows an insight to the world the elephant lives in.

It is important to remember that the elephant’s world is a completely different world from ours based on its sensory experiences.

Scientists say the elephant is able to produce ten different sounds known as laryngeal calls which include rumbles, yells and roars.

Elephants produce and emit different sound, but trumpet is their identity echo which come from the larynx and modified by the trunk when the largest land animal is threatened or exited.

Most of the communication between elephants occurs at an infra sound level.

It is estimated that an area of 50 square kilometres is filled with particular elephant ‘call’ in infra sound.

This might increase to about 300 square kilometres at dusk due to lower temperatures.

In most places, the adult African bush elephant lacks natural predators thanks to its great size, however, the calves especially the newborn are vulnerable to lions and crocodile attacks and rarely to leopard and hyena attacks.

Elephants, of course, are highly vocal but their loud “vocalisations” do more than wake up the neighbours.

The elephant creates this vocalisation with such a high sound pressure that it hits the ground, like a mini explosion, so hard that it creates ripples across the surface of the ground.

That’s how the elephant sends a message and other elephants can tell whether the signal is coming from a friend or a foe and whether danger, or food, is nearby.

The elephant that receives the message also exhibits specific behaviour.

It also may hear airborne sounds emitted by the sender, so it spreads out its ears to triangulate the signal, thus determining the direction it is coming from.

Equipped with a powerful larynx and a flexible diaphragm are able to produce deep vocal that travel in low frequency rumbles capable of reaching more than one kilometres away.

These powerful roars travel much further on the ground whereby at the recipient point another elephant use its leg by pressing it on the ground.

That is possible because elephant’s legs are equipped with fat pads which has acoustic sensitive parts which detect signals and send them to the brain where they are interpreted into a full message for an immediate action.

Elephant’s feet are unique and very interesting, they are quite different from other animal’s feet.

An elephant’s foot is designed in such a way that elephants actually walk on the tips of their toes. All elephants do not have the same number of toes on each foot.

The African elephants have four toes on their front feet and three toes on their back feet. Asian elephants on the other hand, have five on the front and four at the back.

Elephants’ toes are buried inside of the flesh of the foot and not all toes have toenails. An elephant’s foot generally measures 40 to 50 centimetres in length and width and has a circumference of about two metres.

The sole of an elephant’s foot is made of a tough, fatty connective tissue which acts like a spongy shock absorber and allows the elephant to move about silently.

The sole of the foot is also ridged and pitted which gives the elephant stability when walking over a variety of terrains. Its design prevents the elephant from slipping on smooth surfaces such as ice and snow.

The reason that elephants can walk so quietly is in part due to the ‘elastic spongy cushion’ on the bottom of the foot smothering any objects beneath itself.

This causes most noises including the cracking of sticks and twigs and to be muffled.

The fore feet of an elephant have a circular shape whereas the back feet are a more oval shape.

The footprint of an elephant can tell you a few things about that particular elephant. Male elephants tend to leave double footprints as their rear leg falls slightly to the side of their front leg.

Females tend to walk more precisely in the same spot with both legs.

The footprint can also tell you what age the elephant might be. Younger elephants leave a more crisp and defined footprint.

Older elephants leave a more undefined footprint because of smoother ridges and worn heels.

The height of the elephant can also be determined by its footprint.

Elephant’s footprints can play a beneficial role for other animals.

Their large, deep prints create holes in which water can be collected in providing water holes for small animals, roots can be dug up from the ground and navigation on difficult terrain can be made easier.

The structure of the foot allows an elephant to walk in deep mud without difficulty, because when it is being withdrawn the circumference becomes smaller which in turn reduces the suction preventing the elephant from being drawn deeper into the mud.

Scientists say during aggression, a distressed elephant may produce a trumpet sound to seek assistance from its relatives but those who are courageous to defend themselves will stand firmly and roar.

By doing this, sound plays an important role in expressing fighting ability of the aggressed Elephant against its aggressor but most of these roars are finished with infrasound or low frequency sound which human ears are not able to peak.

During estrous period female send chemical messages to all neighbouring males to come closer and mount her, but when young inexperienced or week contenders approaches her, she will automatically chase them while producing infrasound which is able to be picked by a bull browsing six to ten kilometres away.

Scientists say these special calls are produced from a particular source in the larynx as they travel in low frequency of 15 to 35 hertz and may last between 10 to 15 seconds.

With knowledge of a short estrous period consisting of sixteen days among elephants, if the desired male doesn’t respond to these calls surprisingly experienced females will join their sister in these sexual appealing songs until the right bull arrive.

After giving birth, the whole group will congregate near a new member and welcome by blowing huge rumble but the relation between a baby elephant and its mother who provide protection and guardianship to the newborn who walk on her side plead for milk by producing special roar to her provider.

To be sure that its message is understood clearly, the baby elephant will produce this kind of sound while raising the trunk to force her mother to stop for milking.

When the mother fails to respond to these calls the baby may change the call into a soft roar which may force the whole group to stop and pay attention to its appeal.

Most of the time elephant groups consist of female members such as sister, aunties and cousins, all these will respond to the cry from a hungry juvenile.

The whole group will surround the baby elephant and use their trunks to caress its body and comfort the largest baby on land until it’s pleased and allow its relatives to continue with their activities.

Elephants are also known to different signs to pass and respond to different message, they may shake their heads and snapping their large ears as well as throwing dust or branches and leaves from different vegetation.

When a superior member is excited, it will raise its trunk while its subjects may respond by lowering their heads, flattening their ears against their necks and erect their ears in V shape figure.

Recently it has been discovered elephant are able to communicate by using Seismic sound whereby acoustical waves are produced and sent through the ground and picked by legs which send them to the brain through shoulder bones.

Scientists say when an African elephant lifts one foot, placing more weight on the toes of the other foot, to “listen” to seismic signals that can tell much, including danger, the presence of food or water, or the willingness of a potential mate at least two miles away.

These signals are detected through inner ear but to get a clear message the recipient elephant has to lean forward and put more weight on their larger front feet; this is also known as the “freezing behaviour”.

Sometimes elephants would freeze simultaneously, even if they were in mid-stride and press their front feet onto the ground.

They might also lift one leg or roll one foot forward to press the toes against the ground.

The elephant’s acute sense of smell is also used in communication along with its other senses of vision, touch, hearing and the amazing ability to detect vibrations.

An elephant is capable of hearing sound waves well below the human hearing limitation.

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They communicate using both high and low frequency sounds. Low frequency rumbles are made to warn other elephants at long distance of a current situation whereas high frequency sounds such as trumpeting, barking, snorting and other loud calls are used to communicate to those nearer.

Using their heads, bodies, trunks, ears and tail for communicating is the elephant’s natural language. Visual communication includes movements of the head, mouth, tusks and trunk.

For example, when a female elephant feels threatened, she will make herself appear larger by holding her head as high as she can and spreading her ears wide. The writer can be reached