(ORDO NEWS) — Researchers at the University of Queensland, Australia have found that African elephants use their keen sense of smell to communicate with each other and determine their relationship.
They have an excellent scent memory. Much better than a human. Elephants never mate with siblings. They determine kinship by smell.
Researchers at the University of Queensland, Australia have found that African elephants use their keen sense of smell as a form of communication.
Professor Luv Hoffman has led a study of elephants in Malawi’s wildlife parks. The work showed that elephants distinguish age, health status, reproductive status and kinship relationships by smell.
“We tested the DNA, glands, urine and dung of 113 African elephants to determine family groups,” says Hoffman.
“We found that one set of chemicals is common to all members of a group, and another is unique to each individual.
Elephants never mate with a sibling, even if they have been separated for years. They can always tell if an intruder is near them by the smell of their dung or other secretions.”
Hoffman says that judging by their social behavior, elephants use scent to monitor both other members of the herd and strangers.
They greet each other by squealing and flapping their ears. According to the scientist, in this way they direct the flow of pheromones towards the other elephant, as a sign of greeting.
When elephants attack each other, they also flap their ears, probably to make the enemy feel other pheromones as a sign of warning and threat.
Elephants not only quickly identify various smells, but also store them in memory.
“Some of the animals in the study were raised in captivity and one of the tricks they were taught was this.
The elephant took the tourist’s hat and sniffed it,” Hoffman said. “When the tourist came back a few hours later, the elephant could tell exactly who the hat belonged to.”
Hoffman says elephants can be trained to sniff out many things, including blood and explosives.
“These results show that elephants are complex creatures, and sound is not their only form of communication,” the scientist said.
“We consider humans to be the pinnacle of the animal kingdom, but elephants are one of many animal species that have more finely tuned senses than we do.”
—
Online:
Contact us: [email protected]
Our Standards, Terms of Use: Standard Terms And Conditions.