Wild elephants give each other names in much the same we do, meaning they may also be capable of abstract thought, suggests new research published in\u00a0Nature Ecology & Evolution. <\/p>
Dolphins<\/a> and parrots<\/a> are known to address each other by mimicking the sounds they hear other members of their species make, but only humans are known to address each other using names they make up.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p> Intrigued to see if elephants might be doing this too, Michael Pardo and colleagues first studied 469 calls or \u2018rumbles\u2019 made by wild African elephants<\/a> living in the Amboseli National Park and Samburu and Buffalo Springs National Reserves in Kenya.<\/p> The most common call was a harmonically rich, low frequency sound, unique to each individual.\u00a0Each of the vocalisations had a known caller and a known receiver, and an algorithm was used to predict which of the sounds were potential names and which elephant they were likely to describe.\u00a0<\/p> Next, the researchers played recordings of these \u2018names\u2019 to different elephants and found that elephants responded more enthusiastically to their own name than they did to the names of others. When they heard their name, they approached the speaker more quickly and responded more vocally. The finding suggests that elephants have specific vocalisations or \u2018names\u2019 for each other, and that they can recognise these names even when they occur out of context.\u00a0<\/p> Name calling was more common when animals were communicating over long distances, the authors found, and also when adults were talking to their calves. Calves were less likely to use names than adults, suggesting that the ability to devise and use names is a skill that takes years to learn.\u00a0<\/p>