Sea elephants recognize each other by voices in the distance

People can recognize the voices of other people. It seems that we are far from the only ones in this skill. Unlike many other mammals, male elephant seals determine which rival calls them by distance and time of voice impulses in addition to vocal tones. They need this to survive during the fierce wars for the location of females.

Elephant hearing

Studying a colony of elephant seals in Agnu Nuevo Nature Reserve in California, researchers were able to recognize many individuals by the rhythm of their voices. To test whether elephants themselves can do this, experts developed an experiment based on the social behavior of beta males in the colony, who shy away from the roar of a more powerful alpha male, but ignore or oppose other beta males and even weaker “peripheral males” .

When the pace or pitch changed at the alpha male’s roar on the computer, the beta males left anyway, if these changes were short-lived, within the natural variation of the elephant’s roar. If the sound was changed more strongly, the males remained in place, he did not scare them.

Cherche la femme

Scientists attribute this ability to evolutionary necessity: during the fight for females, males fight very fiercely, and a fight can even end in the death of one of them. Therefore, it is important for elephant seals to pre-calculate the fight strategy and understand when it is best to avoid conflict.

Researchers do not exclude that elephant seals are able to recognize someone else's voice on a more subtle level, distinguishing the smallest details in the sound of one note. The experiments are ongoing. Perhaps in the future it will be possible to find out what other constituent parts sea elephants are capable of sharing other people's voices.