New discovery: Elephants hear with .. legs!

US scientists have just published a very interesting new study: Elephants not only use their feet to walk but also… ' listen '! This finding contributes to improving the relationship between humans and elephants, and also has a beneficial effect in preserving this large animal.

For many years, with long and big ears, elephants have not encountered any problems in listening, but according to a new study, besides the ears and elephants in Africa, they use their legs as a means of liking Very good sense.

Listen a few kilometers away

In this study, Dr. Caitlin O'Connell-Rodwell, of Stanford University Medical Center, and colleagues recorded the cries of elephants in Namibia and Kenya as they were coping. with the appearance of a lion.

Later, experts converted these sounds into seismic waves and distributed them to a herd of elephants in Namibia. Upon hearing Namibia's cry, the elephants reacted very quickly, first they gathered in one place, then divided into very tight groups and gathered all the elephants in the middle to protect.

But what surprised the experts was that when they heard the alarm of Kenya's elephant, Namibia's elephants hardly responded at all. The team discovered that the elephant's feet were so sensitive that they could distinguish the call of ' friends ' from the call of ' strangers ' at a distance of several thousand meters.

African elephants can distinguish the cry of ' friends ' from the cry of 'strangers' through extremely sensitive feet with sound waves transmitted on the ground. (Photo: nationalgeographic.com)

However, they have not been able to explain what mechanism leads to different reactions to those alarming sounds. According to Ms O'Connell-Rodwell, it is possible that 'elephants believe in the cries of the types they know better than those of strange elephants'.

Research shows that the farther away the distance between the elephant herd and the place where the alarm sounds, the weaker the reaction of the elephant. She also said there is a lot of difference between an elephant in a zoo and an elephant in the wild in terms of responding to sound waves transmitted on the ground.

Through the results of this study, she said: 'Normally when listening, the elephant will spread 2 big ears and flutter to listen. But for distant noises, they leaned forward and put their weight on their forelegs. Sometimes they all raised one front leg. '

She emphasized: 'All members of the group do the same thing at the same time. They have a very close coordination so it can't be considered a coincidence. '

Contribute to protecting people

In 2004, Ms. O'Connell-Rodwell once discovered that elephants can communicate with each other through low-frequency sounds that they emit.

New research is seen to contribute to improving the relationship between humans and elephants, while also having a beneficial effect in preserving this animal.(Photo: Telegraph.co.uk)

As an African elephant researcher for the past 14 years, Dr. O'Connell-Rodwell said elephants' cries emit seismic waves that spread across the ground, enabling elephants to capture wave signals. That sound through their extremely sensitive feet.

Through this study, she said: 'At a very basic level, this new finding shows that elephants have a way to communicate with each other that we have never thought of.'

The findings of Ms O'Connell-Rodwell and her colleagues are seen as an important contribution to improving the relationship between humans and elephants, and also have a beneficial effect in the conservation of large animals this. For example, the sound of elephants can be used to signal early for farmers to avoid where elephants are, or to use the alarm of elephants to make them quickly leave certain areas.

Ms. O'Connell-Rodwell said: 'Living in the threat of elephants is a terrible thing. A herd of elephants can come into your fields and in one night, they can eat or destroy all the food that can feed your family for a year. ' This study will be published in the August 2007 issue of the American Journal of Acquiring Society (The Journal of Acoustical Society of America).

Quang Thinh

According to AFP, Daily Mail, Life Style Extra, VNN