Do Elephants Have Names?
For a long time we thought humans were the only species that had names for each other. However, some animals have them too. We have recently learned that African elephants have names - or at least specific rumbles - for each other.
Researchers spent years recording the sounds made by wild African elephants in several Kenyan wildlife parks. They then used AI to look for patterns in the sounds the elephants make to communicate. It turned out that the elephants repeatedly address other members of their group using the same rumbling sound. In other words, they have a name for them.
Their own name
If an elephant growled at the same companion multiple times, the sounds were more similar than when the elephant growled at a different elephant. It was also quite significant that the elephant being "addressed" also responded to these sounds. Researchers noticed this during experiments in the field. When they replayed the rumbling sounds they had recorded, they noticed that the elephant hearing their "name" called back or even moved towards the speaker. Sounds intended for a different elephant received a much weaker response. According to the researchers, this shows that they recognise both their own names and those of other elephants.
What does one of these elephant names sound like? You can hear one here. Or at least part of one, because elephants use a variety of sounds, ranging from trumpeting to soft rumbling, across a wide range of frequencies, including some sounds that are too low-pitched for humans to hear. This makes it difficult for the human ear to detect the differences between all the elephant names.
Addressing a specific individual
Elephants often live in groups. They have a wide range of relationships and they are often out of sight of the other members. Researchers think this is why the animals - just like us humans - needed specific sounds to "address" others or "call" them from a distance.
This is a remarkable discovery because it is quite rare for animals to name each other. Dolphins and parrots do something similar (they "name" each other by mimicking the recipient's characteristic call), but elephants go one step further by creating a new and separate sound.