How elephants communicate: friendly nicknames, soft rumbles and loud trumpeting

Difficulty: Challenger (Level 2)

Elephants call their friends using special nicknames. This was found in a recent study. Scientists believe elephants are the first animals besides humans to do this.

Scientists around the world used an artificial intelligence programme to study the calls made by two wild herds of African savannah elephants.

They examined elephant sounds called “rumbles”. These were collected in Kenya’s Samburu National Reserve and Amboseli National Park from 1986 to 2022.

With the help of AI, scientists identified 469 different elephant calls. These calls included 101 elephants making a sound and 117 elephants receiving one.

Elephants make a wide range of sounds. They can trumpet loudly or make rumbles so low that they cannot be heard by the human ear (see graphic).

Names were not always used in the elephant calls. But names were used when elephants were far away and when adults were calling young elephants.

Adults were also more likely to use names than calves. This suggests that it could take years to learn this skill.

The researchers played a recording to an elephant of their friend or family member calling out their name. The animal would respond positively. But the same elephant was far less excited when played the names of others.