|
|
|
|
|
|
Welcome to Your Daily Dot where Dot will share tips, advice, and stories on how we can make our world better.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
If you purchase anything via one of our links, including from Amazon, we may earn a small commission.
|
|
|
Dear Reader,
There have been many famous elephants over the years. Dumbo, of course. Babar. Jumbo. The Youngest Dot, a dedicated fan of pachyderms, sponsored an elephant named Murka, via the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust.
But now it turns out those weren’t their names at all.
Lead author Michael Pardo said that his recent study “not only shows that elephants use specific vocalizations for each individual, but that they recognise and react to a call addressed to them while ignoring those addressed to others.” In other words, they call each other by name. And not stupid names like “Jumbo.” Not surprisingly to moms the world over, most often the names were used by adult elephants calling over long distances for younger ones — presumably to get their trunks home. Now.
It’s incredible, isn’t it? As researchers noted, elephants capable of naming each other are likely capable of much more abstract thought. They join humans as the only (known) species that invent identifiers for others.
And the CEO of Save the Elephants, Frank Pope, noted that this revelation is likely just the tip of a pachydermal trunk of discoveries.
Gigantically,
Dot
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
