- The discovery of an orphaned elephant that sounds like
a lorry is reported today, suggesting that the traditional trumpeting of
elephants could change in response to encounters with human society.
-
- Although some birds, bats, apes, whales and dolphins
can mimic sounds, the discovery marks the first time that vocal imitation
has been found in a non primate land mammal, giving insights into elephant
intelligence and society.
-
- The project began when Dr Joyce Poole of the Amboseli
Trust for Elephants in Nairobi took recording equipment to investigate
"the very strange sounds" made by Mlaika, an orphaned 10-year-old
female living in Tsavo, Kenya.
-
- Mlaika's night time stockade was less than two miles
from the Nairobi-Mombasa highway and Dr Poole discovered that the elephant
could imitate the sound of the lorries rumbling in the distance.
-
- Mlaika appears to have picked up on the rumbles and copied
them, Dr Poole and her colleagues report today in the journal Nature. "I
do think it is another sign that elephants are intelligent," she said.
-
- The elephant usually made the low-frequency lorry-like
noises for several hours after sunset. "It was a most extraordinary
sound, like a foghorn or a truck bearing down the highway," said Dr
Poole.
-
- "I think she does it to amuse herself because she
is bored at night."
-
- Keepers said another elephant, no longer in Tsavo, had
imitated lorries. And since the discovery Dr Poole has heard of more examples,
such as Gail, a croaking elephant.
-
- © Copyright of Telegraph Group Limited 2005.
-
- http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?x
|
