Scientists Say Elephants Have Names for Each Other, Just Like Humans

by Oliver Zink Age, 14

A new study shows elephants have names for each other just like people do. Scientists discovered this by using the sounds that elephants call each other, and the elephants reacted.

West African elephants call each other by name-like calls, a rare ability in non-human animals. Researchers recorded calls of the elephant's name being communicated by another elephant. Then, they played the recording to the elephant and it responded by calling back or walking toward the speaker. A mother elephant would also react to their child’s name, though not as much as their child. The researcher’s experiment confirmed that elephants use a name-like component that distinguishes each elephant from each other. When scientists played the recording for other elephants there was little to no reaction, confirming their hypothesis.

In another study, Micheal Pardo, a researcher at CSU and Save the Elephants, tested the hypothesis on dolphins and parrots. He found that dolphins and parrots called one another by “name” by imitating the call used by the addressee. In contrast, the elephants do not imitate the receiver's call to address one another, which is very similar to humans. The ability to learn to produce new sounds is uncommon in nonhuman mammals, but it is necessary for identifying individuals by name. Arbitrary communication, where a sound represents an idea rather than an imitation, greatly expands communication capability and is considered a next-level cognitive ability.

Several cognitive behaviors and attributes of elephants are often compared to those of humans, including naming each other. This study gives an intriguing insight into how communication works in different species and how these abilities advance over time.

[Sources: CNN; Colorado State University]