Mammals: Interesting or Unusual Behaviour

[Richprins]

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[Lisbeth]

Female elephants rumble to say ‘let’s go!’ New study in Namibia shows males do too, a sign of unexpected social bonds

Published: September 19, 2024, Caitlin O'Connell-Rodwell. Principal Scientist, Harvard University

In elephant family groups made up of related females and their young, it is clear that the animals produce vocal sounds to coordinate action. This happens when it’s time to leave a waterhole, for example. The matriarch or dominant female steps away from the waterhole and turns to the direction she intends to move in. Then she flaps her ears as she makes a short call referred to as the “let’s go” rumble.

What follows is a highly coordinated “conversation” of sorts. The female elephants in the group add their own rumbles, each waiting for the previous individual to finish what it has to say first.

Elephants coordinate action so that they can remain together (at least within acoustic range), while moving to the next resource. It is safer for females and their offspring to travel as a group to protect their young from potential predation.

Male elephants also live in groups, often referred to as bachelor herds. But it’s never been clear how they coordinate their actions. Previous research using camera trap data seemed to show that subordinate males simply followed older males to resources.

Ever since my husband and I worked for the Namibian government from 1992-1995, we have been returning to Mushara waterhole to study the resident elephants. Since 2004, I have brought a team of researchers to help me, and we have returned every dry season to follow the lives of known individual elephants to learn about their group dynamics, coordination and communication.

Our observations of a group of male elephants in Etosha showed that they use the same vocal coordination as females to trigger the action of leaving the waterhole. And the three elephants that most often initiated the “let’s go” rumbles were highly socially integrated. One of them was the most dominant in the group.

This active coordination of male movements, triggered by vocalisations, has never been documented before. It was also surprising because previously it was thought that male groups didn’t have tight social bonds.

Our findings suggest that male elephant society is much richer than previously thought.

Recording elephants in Namibia

Our study of elephant “let’s go” rumbles at Mushara waterhole started in 2005. We know the individual animals and their hierarchy. We recorded their vocalisations and behaviour when they left the waterhole, noting which individuals made the calls and in what order. Each one’s social status and the “signature” structure of its call was also documented.

The calls are infrasonic – humans can’t hear the fundamental frequency but our high-tech microphones could pick them up so we could analyse them later.

The recordings and observations showed that older males invited younger ones to follow them when they left the waterhole, in the same way as females do. The senior male elephant gave a “let’s go” rumble and then each male contributed its own response in a highly coordinated, synchronised fashion.

The involvement of many group members in the “vocal bout” suggests a consensus decision-making process about the timing and direction of the group departure, even though a lead individual initiated the event.

Even more fascinating is that the responses had a musical quality, in the sense that each elephant manipulates its larynx to modify the sound it makes relative to the sound it hears from another elephant. We didn’t expect this and are looking into it more deeply.

Male elephant society

Another reason this finding is exciting is that it provides further evidence that coming-of-age males have a social resource that they can access after they leave the security of family.

Male elephants grow up in a highly social environment within family groups. As youngsters, they are always around their brothers, cousins and other extended family. Once they leave their families at the age of 12-15 years, they suddenly find themselves in a whole new social situation – alone until they can forge ties with other independent males and groups of males within the population.

This isn’t always a straightforward process, and often older males aren’t so interested in dealing with socially needy young males. But a few of the older, social bulls in the Mushara region of Etosha National Park do behave as if they have an interest in taking these young males under their wing.


Elephants at Etosha National Park, Namibia. Caitlin O'Connell-Rodwell, Author provided

Mentorship is critical for young male elephants. They seek out elders and young adults that are inclined to look after their wellbeing. It is truly remarkable to witness these “mentor” characters, and to follow their growth as leaders after coming out of known families that we’ve been watching for decades.

There may be safety in numbers for males, but since predation isn’t as much of a factor, the likely goal of keeping the group together may be to better defend a resource, or simply to remain close to bonded individuals when having to forage a great distances from water resources.

Our study highlights the role of socially integrated males in leading and coordinating group activities. It also provides further evidence that the behaviour of these individuals is crucial for group cohesion.

Male elephant society is steeped in ritual. This is something I emphasise in my books, Elephant Don and Wild Rituals. This study demonstrates further that male elephant society is even more sophisticated than we had previously imagined.


Male elephant posture and ear flap.

Elephant communication

This study and another recent study (showing that elephants have names for each other) opens the door to a whole new realm of questions regarding the use of nouns (naming) and verbs (“let’s go”), thereby forming a sentence.

The study also provides further evidence of dialects, as the “let’s go” rumbles we recorded in Etosha look very different structurally than previously published rumbles in parks in east Africa.

We intend to further explore the structure of these coordinated vocalisations among both male and female groups of elephants, as well as the extent of vocal manipulation and coordination in different populations.

[Richprins]

Interesting!

[nan]

the last one, maybe a video is all black
...( )

[Richprins]

Fixed!

[nan]

[Lisbeth]

RP's is fixed and mine too

[nan]

[Lisbeth]

Chimpanzee speak: New research reveals human-like conversations

Posted on October 22, 2024 by René de Klerk in the Decoding Science post series.



In the vast tapestry of the animal kingdom, few creatures mirror our own existence as closely as chimpanzees. Chimpanzees have long been known for their sophisticated social structures and behavioural traits. However, until now, the nuances of their communicative practices remained largely unexplored. New findings from a groundbreaking study illuminate the striking similarities between chimpanzees and human interactions, revealing that the conversational dynamics that define our species may extend far into the primate lineage. Rene de Klerk considers recent research findings.
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Chimpanzees, as our closest living evolutionary cousins, have long offered a unique window into humankind’s ancestral nature and origins. Sharing over 98% of our DNA, these intelligent primates exhibit brain structures, behaviours and social aptitudes closely resembling our own. However, one domain seemingly separating the two species is communication – with chimpanzees lacking human language’s complexity and the ability to communicate through language.

New research now reveals our links to chimpanzees may run even deeper than previously thought. In the largest-ever study of chimpanzee conversation, scientists monitored and analysed thousands of gestures exchanged between individuals across multiple populations. What they found showed that interactions between chimpanzees are not that much different from interactions between humans.

One aspect that drew interesting conclusions is the examination of conversational structure. In most cases across many different cultures, humans take turns to communicate during social situations, typically leaving an average of 200 milliseconds between the end of a sentence and a response to the statement. The transition time between these responses also differs between different cultures. A study published by the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics in 2009 confirmed that the Danish took 469 milliseconds to respond while Japanese speakers respond very fast, only waiting seven milliseconds before answering.

The researchers from the University of St Andrews in Scotland and colleagues have found that chimpanzees communicate similarly, showing the same conversational structures as humans between their gestures. While chimpanzees do not use spoken language, they use gestures. The team found that, on average, chimpanzees responded to each other with gestures within 120 milliseconds.

The team also wanted to know whether there were differences in communication patterns between different groups, like in human cultures. As a result, they conducted the research across various communities. The study observed five wild East African chimpanzee communities in Uganda and Tanzania. Data collection involved extensive video recording to capture a comprehensive view of gestural communication. Some communities studied were from Uganda – the Sonso and Waibira chimpanzee communities from Budongo Central Forest Reserve, and the Kanyawara community from Kibale National Park. Chimpanzees in the Kalinzu and Issa communities represented Tanzania.


Contemplating the treetops in Kibale National Park

They found that the timing was largely consistent and overlapping across various chimpanzee communities but showed some group differences, just like the cultural variation shown in response timing across human languages.

Collection periods and methods varied depending on the specific community. For Sonso, Waibira and Issa, an ad libitum or naturalistic approach aimed to capture any gestural exchanges observed. When it came to the Kalinzu community, the team focused on following one individual chimpanzee for 30-minute targeted periods to witness gestures. The longest video clips for the study came from the Kanyawara chimpanzee community, where researchers prioritised 15-minute sessions focused on one chimp, seeking to document multimodal forms of communication.

According to Dr. Gal Badihi from the School of Biology at St Andrew’s, who was also the research paper’s lead author, the results were not entirely unexpected. “We already know that animals, including chimpanzees, can take turns. Given that they are so closely related to humans and they have to communicate in similar social contexts it makes sense that the same strategy would evolve in both species,” he explained.

However, for Badihi, the biggest surprise was just how quickly the turn-transitions were and that they were so consistent between groups and close to human timing. He said it was also interesting that the researchers found some minor variation between groups, with the Sonso community in Uganda being a little slower to respond than the other groups. This also matches cultural variation between human groups who speak different languages.

The research was relatively extensive and time-consuming, involving more than 250 chimpanzees across different communities. The team collected more than 8,500 recorded gestures. All of this information required analysis, which was a challenge in itself. “This took years and many people to collect enough video data that recorded the gestural interactions and more years to code all the necessary information to compare the different groups. It was a massive collaborative effort,” explained Badihi.


A chimpanzee stretches in Kibale National Park. Check out more pics from Alexia Chevron here

Some key findings included that 14% of interactions involved a back-and-forth exchange of gestures between two chimps. Many of these sequences contained two or more turns at quick intervals, similar to the rapid-fire structure of conversational exchange seen in human language.

The study presents fascinating new insights into primate communication and behaviour, suggesting that chimpanzee interactions share evolutionary roots and mechanisms with human language development.

As a chimpanzee lover, Badihi says there could definitely be further studies on the chimpanzees.

“We hope to see exactly when chimpanzees exchange gestures instead of just responding with a behaviour. This is interesting because, in most gestural interactions, only one individual uses gestures to make a request.” As an example, requests made through gestures, such as “give me food”, “let’s groom”, and “go away” would be met by the other individual (the recipient) responding with the requested behaviour. Badihi says their findings did not confirm if the recorded gesture-to-gesture exchanges are a type of negotiation clarification or if these indicate conflicting requests.

This groundbreaking study enhances our understanding of chimpanzee communication and bridges the evolutionary gap between humans and our closest relatives. By recognising the intricacies of gesture-based interactions among chimpanzees, we gain valuable insights into the evolutionary origins of our own social behaviours. As we continue to explore the depths of primate communication, we may uncover even more parallels that highlight the rich tapestry of life shared by humans and chimpanzees, emphasizing the importance of conserving these remarkable creatures and their habitats for future generations.

Reference
Fröhlich, M., Gerstner, C., Machanda, Z. P., Lutkin, P., Onyango, P. O., Wittig, R. M., & Hobaiter, C. (2024). Primate turn-taking: Conversations among wild chimpanzees reveal similarities with human interaction. Current Biology, 34(19), 4178-4186.

Further reading
Chimpanzees live in western and central African primary and secondary woodlands and forests, farmland and fallow oil palm plantations. They are the smallest of the great apes and our closest living relative. Read more about chimpanzees, our forest kin, here.
A gallery of fantastic images of chimpanzees – in honour of our fellow great ape. Images submitted by our Photographer of the Year entrants. Check out our gallery celebrating chimpanzees here.

[Richprins]

Such human-like hands in the pic too!