New Elephant Communications Online Library
Have you ever wondered what are elephants are actually trying to tell you? From grunts and roars to rumbles and trumpets, elephants use a wide range of vocalisations to communicate. Their calls are essential cues for the survival of their herd. Now you can find out what elephants are actually saying by visiting a brand new online database – Elephant Ethogram on Elephant Voices.
The Elephant Ethogram includes written and referenced descriptions, video examples, photographic illustrations and, where relevant, audio recordings, of 404 behaviours, 109 behavioural constellations and 23 behavioural contexts. The fully searchable database includes almost 3,000 media files and 2,400 video clips.
Set up by elephant biologist and National Geographic Explorer, Joyce Poole, along with her co-director Petter Granli, they recorded thousands of elephant calls, drawing on data and videos accumulated during decades of study in Amboseli, the Masai Mara National Reserve in Kenya and Gorongosa National Park, Mozambique. They then divided these calls into different categories, or ‘call types’, placing them on an elephant acoustic database and, based on behavioural context, call tone and measurement, interpreted their meanings. This ‘African Elephant Ethogram’ is the most comprehensive audio-visual library ever made on savanna elephant behaviours.
Qoral has a newborn male who is lagging behind, discovering the nature of soil. An allomother named Qaskasi tries to shepherd him along, but Qoral doesn’t like her intervention and comes back to see her off and retrieve him. She pulls him gently along with her trunk and gives a coo-rumble to him. Once he is moving in the correct direction she turns and walks on. The infant pauses again and his older brother, Qenkey, pushes him gently forward. This short video from Amboseli National Park, Kenya, is part of The Elephant Ethogram: A Library of African Elephant Behaviour. Video by Elephant Voices
Elephant Voices
“What’s really impressive about elephants is that they are such extraordinary team players,” Joyce Poole said. “For an elephant family to survive, especially against intelligent predators like humans, it’s important that they stick together and help each other. They have evolved complex communication as part of this teamwork.”
Launched last week, the Elephant Voices’s Ethogram is an amazing new resource and is free for everyone to use – whether you are a scientist, student or are just fascinated by these complex and extraordinary mammals. Visit their website at – www.elephantvoices.org – where you can also find out more about savannah elephant behaviours, social structures, the different ways in which they communicate and the threats to their long-term survival in the wild.
Read about how Joyce Pool was inspired to set up ElephantVoices and the Ethogram in an interview with National Geographic, where you can also find videos and explanations about different elephant behaviours.
Elephant Voices’ goals are to advance the study of elephant cognition, communication and social behaviour along with promoting scientifically sound and ethical management and care of elephants.