From the Archives: Elephants Say Bee-Ware!

Given the recent elephant hunting scandal, I thought I'd repost this award-winning piece from the archives, on a very clever way to deter elephants from raiding human settlements. Much cleverer than shooting them. (Click on the archives icon for the original.)

What information is contained in the call of a mammal? Some calls might reflect the internal emotional state of the animal, like fear or anxiety, or they can refer to an external object, agent, or event, like the presence of a predator. Rhesus monkeys, lemurs, baboons, and guinea pigs, for example, will produce calls when separated from their conspecifics or in the presence of a stranger. Howler monkeys produce specific alarm calls for avian predators, even when they have never encountered an avian predator for several generations. Vervet monkeys produce different calls in response to leopards and eagles, suggesting that the acoustic signals carry information like "predator from the ground" or "predator from the sky." The yellow-bellied marmot's alarm calls are not predator specific, but increase in rate along with the level of perceived risk. Acoustically, typical features of alarm calls include changes in tempo (rate and duration), source feature (frequency and amplitude), or filter features (vocal tract modulations).

Unlike other mammals, African elephants have few predators that pose significant risk to their survival. In Kenya's Amboseli National Park, elephants have been observed retreating and posturing defensively in the presence of Masaai tribesmen, who have been known to kill elephants. However, they display the same response to auditory playback of unfamiliar conspecifics, suggesting that this behavioral response may be a more general response to strangers instead of a specific response to threat.

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Source: http://scienceblogs.com/thoughtfulanimal/2011/04/from_the_archives_elephants_sa.php

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