Elephants Can Tell Gender, Ethnicity in Human Voices

African elephants can differentiate between human languages and move away from those considered a threat, a skill they have honed to survive in the wild, researchers said.

Researchers played recordings of human voices for elephants at Amboseli National Park in Kenya to see how they would respond, according to a report in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Some of the voices were from local Maasai men, a group that herds cattle and sometimes comes into conflict with elephants over access to water and grazing space. Occasionally, elephants are killed in clashes with Maasai men, and vice-versa.

Other recorded voices were from Kamba men, who tend to be farmers or employees of the national park, and who rarely represent a danger to elephants.

All were saying the same phrase: "Look, look over there, a group of elephants is coming."

When elephants heard the adult male Maasai voices, they tended to gather together, start investigative smelling with their trunks, and move cautiously away.

But when elephants heard females, boys, or adult male Kamba speakers, they did not show concern.

Much more at Source

It is sad when a whole species feel we are such a plague that they need to differentiate who among us are the worse. Perhaps there may be a reason after all for aliens, if they are real, to not establish contact with us, we are undesirable by all.

Animals are really smart, never ceases to amaze me what it is found about them every day. I wonder if humanity persist for one hundred thousand years more if we are going to have wars with others animals species in our planet, they are learning to avoid us, they are taking notice of our actions.

Enough b movie plots, what you think of the smart elephants?


Elephants Have Specific Alarm Word for ‘Human’

reply to post by Indigent


Amazing stuff
Everyday we are learning that the "beasts" are more intelligent than we think.
Ever seen the Elephant artist?



Heck he is a better artist than myself lol.


Awesome dude S&F.

I like elephants. Smart critters with long memories and lots of emotions. But I admit .. they scare me. When I've been to zoos or to a circus or to Lion Country Safari, I'm always respectful of their power. I can't imagine using them in wars or for transportation (like horses) which has been done in the past.

Now if only they could increase their vocabulary and thus expand their thoughts, they'd be smarter than humans by far.

And I highly doublt they'd stoop to tearing off humans' body parts and leaving them to die just for a valuable trophy.

just threaten a mamas baby elephant....
she'll remember you
for about as long as it takes
to dismember you...

reply to post by gardener


Why is it animals understand what WE say, but we can't understand them? ...

Anyone who's ever owned a dog will not be surprised by this. Most responsible dog owners very quickly realise just how intelligent dogs are, and this leads them to look more closely at other animals.

People should stop saying things like "Wow thats amazing" when they learn how intelligent an animal is, what they should be saying is "Wow, why didn't I already know that?"

I confess I was the same untill I had a Dog friend.

reply to post by VoidHawk


Same here, but with birds.

We have been misled to believe that we are way smarter than animals. That is not true. Our desires are different, our desires are also different than our ancestors desires. I like eating meat and I know that animals are intelligent beings. I feel there is intelligence in all life forms. As long as we don't waste or unnecessarily destroy life, I feel we are doing alright. I try not to eat animals that are endangered and I have now decided to back humane treatment of our food till it is slaughtered. I believe this is a fair way to go. I grew up on a farm, I saw a lot of people treating their livestock bad over the years, feeding them food that stimulated growth and profit instead of health. I never really liked that. I believe that the people raising livestock should care properly for their livestock and not worry about profit. Animal husbandry is a great thing, it is good for man and for the animals...even though they eventually die and get consumed. I believe in thanking the animals and plants also when I sit down to eat a meal. Respecting the life lost for me to live is good for your soul.

So why would they think an elephant couldn't tell what sex a human was before this anyway...Oh that's right, maybe the elephant couldn't distinguish if a person is gay. At least someone realized this now, the elephant did not just start doing this, it did it all along. Someone just tested this...our awareness is starting to increase.

NowanKenubi
reply to post by VoidHawk

 

Same here, but with birds.

A lady I know has a parrot. She has conversations with it that just blow me away! One day she told to me to ask it where the old man is (her hubby), so I aked it, it replied with "Silly old fools out walking the dog", he was!

rickymouse
So why would they think an elephant couldn't tell what sex a human was before this anyway...Oh that's right, maybe the elephant couldn't distinguish if a person is gay. At least someone realized this now, the elephant did not just start doing this, it did it all along. Someone just tested this...our awareness is starting to increase.

Thanks, kinda what I was trying to say above but you said it better

reply to post by VoidHawk


I know what you mean, my dogs were all as smart as a kid, but for me this is more, this shows culture among elephants not just reasoning power.

reply to post by rickymouse


Its not really about the sex of the voice, its the fact they know who are threats or not based on pass experience, memory, reasoning, very human things that we want to think make us unique.

Did we conquer the world just by luck of getting hands if its not our unique intelligence?

I used too have a beagle that could tell when someone was going to do something detrimental to me
even it turns out if the damage was going to occur relatively far in the future
the couple of people the dog instantly went on gaurd over when he met them all ended up being real asshats

the dog had been abused before i got him....maybe ahats stink

Indigent
reply to post by VoidHawk

 

I know what you mean, my dogs were all as smart as a kid, but for me this is more, this shows culture among elephants not just reasoning power.

But again I would ask, why are you surprised?
The experiments that took place to discover this were extremely simple, so why didn't we already know this?
For me that is the real surprise!

Elephants are amazing, and should be treated as non human persons.

Period.

~Tenth

Danbones
I used too have a beagle that could tell when someone was going to do something detrimental to me
even it turns out if the damage was going to occur relatively far in the future
the couple of people the dog instantly went on gaurd over when he met them all ended up being real asshats

the dog had been abused before i got him....maybe ahats stink

edit on Tuepm3b20143America/Chicago36 by Danbones because: (no reason given)

When my children were young one of their school friends knocked on our door. When we answered our dog stood in front of the kids and growled at him. A couple of years later this kid was locked up because he kicked someone nearly to death.
On another occasion while at work my dog pee'd on a guys leg! When the guy left I expected to be in deep poo, but instead everyone cheared and told Mr Dog what a good boy he was, it turned out they all hated the guy.
He never behaved this way with anyone else.

Always listen to your dog

reply to post by tothetenthpower


Soon enough we may find that even cows are non human persons and we would end up only being able to eat grass until we find out grass is also sentient

Ignorance is a bless

Indigent
I wonder if humanity persist for one hundred thousand years more if we are going to have wars with others animals species in our planet, they are learning to avoid us, they are taking notice of our actions.

Wars are a human concept. Other animals live in the moment and don't plan wars. If we survive that long then it will only be because we learned to fundamentally change.

reply to post by SteveR


Actually i saw that monkeys also make wars but i dont have any links for it.

Many insects fight for territory, we are not as unique as we think