Elephant groups with older matriarchs in their midst did best at assessing the threat from different speakers, further bolstering the presumed role of learning in the animals’ behaviour.
The elephants also did not act the same way as they did when recordings of lions were played, as was shown in a previous study.
In those scenarios, they bunched together so that juveniles – those most at risk from a lion attack – were in the centre, and moved toward the sounds as if to scare the lion away.
When it comes to recognizing people, elephants may not be alone in this ability. Other research has suggested that wild bottlenose dolphins in Brazil have become so familiar with humans that they engage in cooperative hunting with artisanal fisherman.
Great apes, crows and even prairie dogs have also been shown to differentiate between humans on some level.
A separate study published last month in the journal PLoS ONE showed elephants even have specific alarm calls for when humans are near, suggesting the relationship between people and elephants has reached a troubling point and that conservation efforts are more important than ever.
“We have become a formal enemy of the elephants,” said Lori Marino, an expert on animal intelligence at Emory University.
“They can not only make some distinctions between us, but we are now on their list of species to watch out for.”
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