Long distance ele-communication is getting ridiculous...

By John Roberts 6 February 2008 03:14:00

It is a well documented fact that eles use several different means and methods to communicate over long distances and that in the wild, even when out of sight of one another, elephants are constantly chatting; even when apart an ele is never alone.

    Recently a group of professional and scientific elephant confusers from the University of St Andrews spent time in the African bush surprising matriarchs by moving elephant urine into unusual places and watching the look on the matriarch's face when Slow Nelly, reputedly always lagging behind slowing down the herd and gossiping with the meerkats - least that's what she always says she's been doing, somehow apparently raced ahead to take a pee ahead of the matriarch herself.

    From this, perhaps the ultimate of ele practical jokes, they surmised that eles, especially matriarchs, will keep a mental map of a herd of up to 30 elephants and their relative positions whilst walking and foraging for food.  The matriarchs, one assumes, were left to wonder at their own sanity, leading the herd around in circles whilst going in a straight line and you can bet that Nelly was questioned as to her motives for sneaking ahead, albeit incontinently.

    Never pee where you shouldn't be - a good motto for life!

    Recently though, I'm proud to report, even this impressive feat has been bettered by a group of Asian elephants in the Golden Triangle and an English family, an elephant was used to communicate a message across continents, time zones and perhaps even light years, what's more, they are communicating interspecies.

    The Golden Triangle Asian Elephant Foundation is proud to present a unique ele-messaging service - for a donation to the foundation and if the timing's right we can chalk up an ele with a personalised message and all you have to do is have your special elephant loving person open the computer and hit the link to the webcam http://elecam.viewnetcam.com/CgiStart?page=Single&Language=0 - providing it is not past ele bed time and we've got our time zone sums correct there should be an ele standing there in all her finery, traditional Surin designs on one side and your message on the other - (all in washable chalk) communicating across the internet.



Booer Tong all done up for Connor's birthday message through the ether....



    'Twill keep me honest too, once the eles themselves get the hang of this expect to see them standing there early in the morning with 'feed me' messages to match their 'feed me' eyes.
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Below are two news stories covering research to be published in a new paper from the journal Biology Letters. I do not yet have access to it but will let you know as soon as I do, and will make it available at that time. Please do not write me to request it at this time, thanks.    --------------------------- An elephant never forgets where to find its nearest and dearest Lewis Smith, Times Online  December 5, 2007
Members of an elephant family may be out of sight but they are always in the minds of the herd's matriarchs, reseachers have found.
Tests have found that female elephants are able to remember the whereabouts of at least 17 family members simultaneously and perhaps as many as 30. They can keep mental tabs on which of their relations are ahead of them when the herd searches for food, which of them are lagging behind and which are travelling in separate groups.
Professor Richard Byrne, of the University of St Andrews, said that the elephants performed an impressive feat of memory by being able to recall where each of their relatives was in a constantly changing environment. "It's hard enough for us to keep track of two or three children in a busy shopping centre. Imagine trying to do it with 30 or so," he said.
Researchers tested the ability of African elephants to remember where each family member had got to by watching their behaviour while sniffing urine. Elephants have poor eyesight but an excellent sense of smell and are able to identify one another from traces of urine on the ground.
To test the memories of the elephants samples of urine-soaked earth were collected by researchers and placed in positions where a herd was about to pass. Observations showed that the animals exhibited surprise when they could detect the odour of a family member they knew was behind them. Interest was shown when the urine was that of a close relative travelling in the same group or in a separate herd, but samples left by unknown individuals were ignored.
Professor Byrne said that the study cast light on the way that elephants used their memories, especially as powers of long-term recall were likely to be of limited use to them.
Anecdotal evidence has suggested that elephants have good long-term memories but the study, in the Amboseli National Park, in Kenya, suggested that the ability to remember where a female relative could be found was much more important to them.
"Very long-term memory may not be all that important to animals except on rare occasions," Professor Byrne said. "But keeping track of a constantly changing situation would be.
"Elephants are keeping track of whether a member of the family is in the group they are in and whether they are in front or behind. That's quite a challenge for any of us when you are talking about 20 to 30 individuals."
The experiments were carried out by researchers from the University of St Andrews and the Amboseli Trust for Elephants in Kenya. More than 1,400 elephants from eight clans live in the park, in 58 family units.
The researchers, who reported their findings in the journal Biology Letters, concluded: "It seems that female elephants have a general interest in monitoring family members with whom they are travelling. Elephants' order of travelling often changes and ‘overtaking' is common, suggesting that elephants must frequently update their expectation of where others are in relation to themselves.
"As a highly social species, elephants would benefit from knowing which individuals were near by." 
Article at the following link: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/science/article3001086.ece

  How elephants keep tabs on family By Helen Briggs, BBC News December 5, 2007
Elephants keep track on up to 30 absent relatives by sniffing out their  scent and building up a mental map of where they are, research suggests. Herd members use their good memory and keen sense of smell to keep in  touch as they travel in large groups, according to a study of wild  elephants in Kenya.   The University of St Andrews studied 36 family groups of elephants living  in Amboseli National Park.   The research is published in the Royal Society journal, Biology Letters.   Memory update   Wild elephants form matriarchal family groups which travel, hunt for food,  and socialise together. Individuals need to keep track of each other, as  family members split up into smaller groups or overtake companions as they  wander the home range.   It may be that where elephants really excel in memory is not remembering  things for very long periods but in everyday working memory Dr Richard Byrne, St Andrews University Psychologists from the University of St Andrews collected samples of  female elephant urine from the ground and presented it to relatives to  trick them into believing that the elephant had recently passed by.   Elephants showed surprise when they encountered the scent of an individual  who was actually walking behind them so could not possibly have been  there.   "We reckoned that only if each elephant was continually updating its  memory of where everyone was, and was able to identify specific  individuals from their urine, would they show any different reaction to  this case," said co-researcher Dr Lucy Bates.   The elephants also reacted when the urine was from a family member who was  far away, and not supposed to be in the area.   Human parallels   Dr Byrne said it is hard enough for humans to keep tabs on each other, let  alone elephants, which have poor day vision.   "If you think of a comparable human situation - perhaps a mum in the  supermarket with three kids and a husband who'd rather be looking in the  DIY section - keeping track of four or five people is really quite a  strain," he told BBC News.   "But our elephants are doing it in parties of 20 to 30 family members."   But Dr Byrne said that elephants have two advantages over humans - their  excellent sense of smell and, if their popular reputation is anything to  go by, a good memory.   "It may be that where elephants really excel in memory is not remembering  things for very long periods but in everyday working memory - where it is  important to update and delete things rather than remember things  forever," he added.   The research was carried out with members of the Amboseli Trust for  Elephants.   Story from BBC NEWS: http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/science/nature/7127276.stm ------------------------------------ Melissa Groo Save the Elephants News Service Researcher

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