Chimp & See Talk

Elephant vocalizing

  • puddock by puddock

    We don't see much of the elephant in this video but we do hear quite a loud, low growling sound. I guess this is the elephant. Can any of our experts confirm, please, that this is a normal elephant sound?

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  • Boleyn by Boleyn moderator

    The growling is a very typical elephant sound but I don't know what it expresses. Our specialist @NuriaM will certainly be able to answer it next week.

    I hope she will even dedicate one of her "elephant tuesday blog posts" to elephant communication. Have you already seen all the articles on our blog about elephants? A must read when you like elephants!

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  • NuriaM by NuriaM scientist, moderator in response to Boleyn's comment.

    thanks @Boleyn for your beautiful words, ❤ ( @Pugli is starting to get jealous now, so I will include him in my comments...men!)

    so @puddock, this sound is a typical elephant sound and it´s called "rumble", that is, a low frequency sound produced to communicate over long distances, -low freq. sounds travel further than higher frequency sounds-. In this particular case, I can´t tell much about the context of this rumble because I can´t see much, I just can claim that it´s a communication strategy (thanks @Pugli 😃 ).

    I still can´t believe that I didn´t write any specific blog post about ele. communication itself, as it was one of my listed subjects 😕 . I will for sure!!

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  • puddock by puddock

    That;s really interesting - thanks! It's an impressive sound. And counter-intuitive to think that such an intimate, rumbling sort of sound actually travels the furthest - isn't physics wonderful!

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  • puddock by puddock

    ...maybe the elephant is saying "Hey guys, come and see this camera - it's fallen over."

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  • NuriaM by NuriaM scientist, moderator in response to puddock's comment.

    it´s amazing to hear this sound, but it´s even more awesome to feel it! if you happen to be near an elephant when s/he rumbles, you can feel the vibrations in your chest!!

    @Pugli says: it´s like feeling in your body the bass sound when you are near an amplifier in a rock concert (but I think here he went too far 😄 )

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  • puddock by puddock

    I can imagine - even on this clip you get a sense of how powerful and awesome it is 😃

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  • Boleyn by Boleyn moderator in response to NuriaM's comment.

    Oh poor @Pugli - has all the knowledge and is not even mentioned - but he's got a very good pupil for sure that's why we tend to forget about him 😉

    Kudos to you @Pugli to pass on all your wisdom to @NuriaM. We are grateful! 😃

    psssst....was that enough flattering now, @NuriaM?

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  • NuriaM by NuriaM scientist, moderator in response to Boleyn's comment.

    perfect 😄

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  • Boleyn by Boleyn moderator

    For those who missed it: @NuriaM has now written a very interesting article about elephant communication. Check out the blog!

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