it’s a fact that all wild elephants have
an uncanny ability to show up at the
right place at the right time through
mountains across savannas and over long
distances for years scientists wondered
how they communicate and perhaps it is
through their feet biologist dr. Caitlin
O’Connell Rodwell is creating
earthquakes for elephants at the
Auckland Zoo and shaking up perceptions
of how the animals communicate when I
first suggested this idea it went
against a lot of people’s conceptions
about how animals communicate while in
Africa
Caitlin noticed that whenever an
elephant in the wild perked up its ears
you would also lift a foot off the
ground there’s something strange going
on here that they’re really leaning and
using their feet in a way that seems
like they’re detecting something with
their feet the goal of our experiment is
to see if elephants can sense vibrations
in the ground here behind the zoo’s
elephant paddock Caitlin and her team
are burying seismic shakers and rigging
a system of speakers and microphones the
subject of this experiment is Donna in
African elephant elephants can produce
low-frequency vocalizations called
rumbles which are barely audible to the
human ear when in elephant rumbles the
sound generates seismic waves that
travel through the ground those ground
waves ripple across the surface like a
stone tossed in water remaining
detectable much farther away than
audible communication but just how far
this is the first time that we really
studied this in depth in a large mammal
we know now that elephant rumbles it’s
their long-distance call that they make
to other elephants what we want to know
is if they can detect those rumbles in
the ground
Donna will be tested on her response to
seismic activity the random signal sent
out will either be positive indicating a
seismic rumble or negative meaning
nothing at all is played she has
feet planted on the ground for the
negative ones and she lifts a foot for
the positive one and she gets a reward
this isn’t another trial with no
playback so she should not lift her foot
he exits and ten seconds later she does
not Donna does lifts her paw and then is
congratulated good girl Donna good girl
general curator Colleen Kinsley is there
to give Donna treats when she responds
correctly of course the study depends on
Donna’s willingness to participate
that’s the beauty of it is she gets to
choose you know do I want to do this now
or do I don’t want to do this now the
soft skin of an elephant’s foot acts
much like a drumhead sensing vibrations
Kaitlyn believes the seismic waves are
felt in the toenails and move up to the
ear via bone conduction and since
underground signals travel farther than
airborne ones Kaitlyn suggests elephants
will stomp their feet rather than
vocalize a rumble to send an urgent
message or a warning that must reach for
miles Kaitlyn is proving that for
elephants they don’t need a
long-distance calling plan if they can
just stop
[Music]
an uncanny ability to show up at the
right place at the right time through
mountains across savannas and over long
distances for years scientists wondered
how they communicate and perhaps it is
through their feet biologist dr. Caitlin
O’Connell Rodwell is creating
earthquakes for elephants at the
Auckland Zoo and shaking up perceptions
of how the animals communicate when I
first suggested this idea it went
against a lot of people’s conceptions
about how animals communicate while in
Africa
Caitlin noticed that whenever an
elephant in the wild perked up its ears
you would also lift a foot off the
ground there’s something strange going
on here that they’re really leaning and
using their feet in a way that seems
like they’re detecting something with
their feet the goal of our experiment is
to see if elephants can sense vibrations
in the ground here behind the zoo’s
elephant paddock Caitlin and her team
are burying seismic shakers and rigging
a system of speakers and microphones the
subject of this experiment is Donna in
African elephant elephants can produce
low-frequency vocalizations called
rumbles which are barely audible to the
human ear when in elephant rumbles the
sound generates seismic waves that
travel through the ground those ground
waves ripple across the surface like a
stone tossed in water remaining
detectable much farther away than
audible communication but just how far
this is the first time that we really
studied this in depth in a large mammal
we know now that elephant rumbles it’s
their long-distance call that they make
to other elephants what we want to know
is if they can detect those rumbles in
the ground
Donna will be tested on her response to
seismic activity the random signal sent
out will either be positive indicating a
seismic rumble or negative meaning
nothing at all is played she has
feet planted on the ground for the
negative ones and she lifts a foot for
the positive one and she gets a reward
this isn’t another trial with no
playback so she should not lift her foot
he exits and ten seconds later she does
not Donna does lifts her paw and then is
congratulated good girl Donna good girl
general curator Colleen Kinsley is there
to give Donna treats when she responds
correctly of course the study depends on
Donna’s willingness to participate
that’s the beauty of it is she gets to
choose you know do I want to do this now
or do I don’t want to do this now the
soft skin of an elephant’s foot acts
much like a drumhead sensing vibrations
Kaitlyn believes the seismic waves are
felt in the toenails and move up to the
ear via bone conduction and since
underground signals travel farther than
airborne ones Kaitlyn suggests elephants
will stomp their feet rather than
vocalize a rumble to send an urgent
message or a warning that must reach for
miles Kaitlyn is proving that for
elephants they don’t need a
long-distance calling plan if they can
just stop
[Music]
Please follow and like us: