ANIMALS
Elephants give each other names
WORDS RICHARD PALLARDY
African elephants in Amboseli National Park, Kenya, appear to have names for each other
© Getty
Can you name a famous elephant? Babar, perhaps? Or Dumbo? Memorable though these monikers may be to humans, they sound nothing like the names elephants give each other. If you’re an elephant, your name is something more like a low, rumbling sound, scientists say. Researchers have found that African savannah elephants make vocalisations specific to individuals in their social groups, and that the recipients responded accordingly. In short, elephants appear to have names for one another. This makes them the first non-human animals to address each other in a manner that does not imitate the receiver’s own call, as dolphins and parrots do. And while other animals do produce what are known as ‘referential calls’ in order to identify objects such as predators or food, those calls are believed to be instinctive and do not require social learning.