Elephants are able to identify whether a person poses a threat to them from their voice and even their language, that is, they can differentiate between different ethnic groups.
This conclusion has been reached by a team of scientists from the University of Sussex, in the United Kingdom, after studying the habits of several family groups of these large mammals in the Amboseli National Park, in Kenya.
Karen McComb Professor of Animal Cognition and Behavior, who coordinated the research, notes that “recognizing predators and assessing the degree of threat they pose is a fundamental skill for many wild animals. In this sense, human beings pose a challenge, as it varies drastically depending on the group to which they belong ”.
To analyze the elephants’ reaction, the voices of Masai, a people with whom these proboscides often have problems, were reproduced through camouflaged loudspeakers, as they compete for access to water and pastures, and of some kamba.
They follow a more sedentary way of life, based mainly on agriculture, and, in principle, pose a lower risk for elephants.
The experts observed that these animals were grouped together and their attitude became markedly more defensive when they listened to the Masai , even though they were saying the same phrase as the kamba. Moreover, although they did not neglect vigilance, they relaxed when it was women or children who spoke .
According to the researchers in an article published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences , this indicates that they also take into account factors such as age or gender . In fact, when scientists modified male voices to make them appear more female or younger, the elephants continued to behave as if they had been uttered by adult males.
In the opinion of scientists, this implies that they identify gender in a fundamentally different way than we humans do.
