After drinking at a water source, the older male invites the younger ones to go somewhere else, and does this with an infrasound song.
When talking about the social life of elephants, they usually mean females – it has long been known that they live in communities led by old and experienced female matriarchs. They help others find water and food, choose safe routes when moving from place to place, etc. However, male elephants also form groups: most of the males in such groups are quite young, although there are older individuals among them. And if there are adult elephants in the group, you can be sure that the young ones will behave normally. Teenage elephants often quarrel with each other, they are more aggressive and more fearful, and when angry or scared, they often attack something or someone else – for example, livestock. However, in the presence of an adult or old elephant, the young ones behave calmer, do not smash anything and do not attack livestock. Perhaps the young feel more protected around adults and elders, or perhaps there is some kind of pedagogical influence from the adult elephants.
In any case, elephants in a group need to communicate somehow. In a recent article in PeerJ It is said that males use infrasound when communicating with their classmates. To find out this, it took more than ten years of observations in Namibia’s Etosha National Park: video cameras, including night vision cameras, and microphones, including underground ones, were installed near local water sources where elephants come during drought. It is unlikely that you will be able to hear elephant infrasound in the usual way, but you can catch it in vibrations that spread along the ground.
Having compared the sounds with the behavior, the researchers came to the conclusion that the male infrasound serves as a signal to move on: the elephants came to the source, drank, rested and moved on. But this is not just a command from the elder to the younger. Yes, the infrasound song is started by the oldest, most respected male, who stands in the center of the social network, but his “verses” are picked up by the rest of the group. And they sing along not just anyhow, but in turns, and each next one waits until the previous one is almost finished. That is, the elephants’ voices slightly overlap, like singers who pick up a song from each other. All this looks not so much like a command to move on, but rather an exchange of opinions and a check of readiness to continue on the way.
Similar behavior, including similar sound signals, was previously observed in female elephants. But it was previously believed that only female elephants had a complex social life. It is gradually becoming clear that this is not the case, that males also have complex groups in which young elephants learn to socialize and behave in society, and that they use different signs and signals for this. It is possible that the command message “I suggest everyone move on” is not the only one, and if you listen to elephants, you can find other sound signals for other occasions in life.
Source: www.nkj.ru
