- By Poorva Karki
- Wed, 12 Jun 2024 11:08 AM (IST)
- Source:JND
Interesting Facts About Elephants: It’s difficult to accurately predict the time when humanity began using names for each other. However, it is safe to say that it surely must have been the time when humans gained enough knowledge and understanding to understand the role of names and their uses. It might sound like a minor feat that humanity achieved, but from a ‘development’ point of view, it was a sight of the species being a far more intelligent one, than the rest on the Earth. Perhaps that is exactly the reason why these new studies, hinting towards another species also using ‘names’, ended up intriguing many.
Believe it or not, but as per a new study that was recently published, elephants call each other by names. Yes, let that sink in. Elephants and their intelligence is not something new to people. In fact, these gentle giants are counted among the creatures who are hailed for their intelligence, after humans. However, this new study by Mickey Pardo, a behavioural ecologist of Cornell University and formerly of Colorado State University, indicated that these creatures are smart enough to have ‘name-like components’ in different types of sounds they make to address an individual, as per Reuters.
The study was reportedly published on June 10 in the journal Nature Ecology & Evolution. The study was conducted on African savannah elephants in Kenya. As per reports, around 100 elephants from the Amboseli National Park and Samburu National Reserve were involved in the research. Researchers, as per Reuters, used a ‘machine-learning model’, where they identified the said name-like components.
As per reports, the giants had a strong response to ‘calls’ that were addressed to them, resulting in the study’s finding that reportedly indicated that elephants- “address one another with something like a name.” Needless to say, the study left people intrigued and somewhat impressed.
"The fact that elephants address one another as individuals highlights the importance of social bonds - and specifically, maintaining many different social bonds - for these animals," Pardo was quoted as saying to Reuters.