General Chat

The discovery of an orphaned elephant that sounds like a lorry is reported in the journal Nature, suggesting that the traditional trumpeting of elephants could change in response to encounters with human society.
Although some birds, bats, apes, whales and dolphins are known to mimic sounds, this discovery marks the first time that vocal imitation has been found in a non primate land animal, giving insights into elephant intelligence and society.
The project began when Dr J Poole of the Amboseli Trust for Elephants in Nairobi took recording equipment to investigate the “very strange sounds” made by Mlaika, an orphaned 10 year old female living in Tsavo, Kenya. Tsavo’s night time stockade was less than two miles from the Nairobi-Mombasa highway and Dr Poole discovered that the elephant could imitate the sound of lorries rumbling in the distance.. Mlaika appears to have picked up on the rumbles and copied them. Dr Poole and her colleagues report in the journal believe it is another indication of elephants intelligence.
The elephant usually made the low frequency sounds for several hours after sunset. “It was a most extraordinary sound, like a foghorn or a truck tearing down the highway” said Dr Poole. “I think she does it to amuse herself because she is bored at night”.
Keepers said that that another elephant, no longer in Tsavo, had also imitated lorries and, since the discovery, Dr Poole had heard or more discoveries.

Len of the Chilterns