Every Tuesday on our Facebook Page, we ask you to share our page with your friends and family to spread awareness about elephants. Personal stories or testimonies about elephants help people who may otherwise never think about elephants learn something new, which often engenders care for the world’s largest mammal. Today we specifically asked you to tell a friend why you love elephants. Here are just a few reasons we do!
Psychologist Graeme Shannon of Sussex University found elephants in Kenya able to distinguish between different languages – English/the language of tourists clicking cameras - safe; Maa/the language of the Maasai warriors who occasionally kill elephants – potentially dangerous, ; and Swahili, generally safe. The elephants seemed anxious when someone spoke Maa; the moment she switched to Swahili, they became calm.
Animal psychologist Karen McComb, also at Sussex, played back elephant sounds – the deep, gargling rumble they make – to discover how many individual voices one animal could recognise. The answer?More than 100.
Research in Japan suggests they can count, too.
But it is the empathy of elephants that stands out, that makes them seem so alike to humans. Prof Byrne wrote: “What elephants share with humans is that they live in an elaborate and complex network in which support, empathy, and help for others are critical for survival.”
(stories shared from John Sweeney’s article)
