Recent stories in Smithsonian (Male Elephants Queue in Dry Times and How Male Elephants Bond) illustrate how male elephants, like their female counterparts, form complex social relationships. These relationships, in addition to giving company, provide stability during hard times. Studies indicate that a hierarchy in male elephant society keeps down violence when resources are limited. ...
Yet more evidence that elephants, among other animals, sense sound better than we humans do. Just seconds before the magnitude 5.9 quake that shook the East Coast of the United States on August 23, 2011, numerous animals at the National Zoo, including orangutans, gorillas, birds, and elephants made sudden calls and then attempted to move ...
Andrea Turkalo happily reports in her latest blog post that there has been no evidence of poaching in or near the clearing they observe. Even more exciting is the confirmed sighting of a pair of twin elephant calvesn. Twin births are very rare among elephants in general, but these two, a boy and a girl ...
Did you know that male elephants create and maintain best-friendships? Did you know that they seek out older males for guidance? Explore this and other fascinating facts about male elephant society in this Smithsonian Magazine article, “How Male Elephants Bond” by Caitlin O’Connell-Rodwell (November 2010). Video: Elephant Fight Club ...
This BBC clip shows elephant behavior. It’s another visit with Andrea Turkalo in Dzanga Baï, Central Africa. Watch adolescent male elephants learn how to be adults when the big bulls show up. ...
60 Minutes Presents: Into The Wild The second segment is on the study of elephant language. Andrea Turkalo has been studying central African forest elephants in the Dzanga Baï clearing for 19 years. She’s identified a link between their complex vocalizations and their actions, working with scientists at Cornell University, they’re trying o compile an ...
Elephants need mental stimulation too. An elephant’s brain develops much like a human brain. They’re social animals who learn how to be elephants from their parents. Those elephants who grow up in captivity lean many behaviors from their human “parents.” Ever looking for ways to mentally occupy their young charges, humans have introduced elephants to ...
Here are some quick research facts about elephants: The word “Elephant” – Both Greek and Latin. The elephant’s genus is elephas wich comes form the Greek, elephos, meaning “antlered beast.” Elephant comes from the Latin ele, meaning “arch” and phant, meaning “huge.” So “elephant means “huge antlered arch beast,” or something to that effect. There ...