Studying Elephant Communication | HHMI BioInteractive Video

Dr. Natasha McConnell, a researcher, has been studying the communication patterns of elephants in Namibia for over 20 years. Her focus is on the physics behind their communication and how they detect signals through vibrations in the ground. Elephants roam vast territories and use a range of sounds with both high and low frequencies to communicate. Low-frequency sounds can travel farther, and elephants seem to respond to these calls from as far as 2 kilometers away. McConnell believes that elephants can detect vibrations through their trunks and feet, and her experiments have shown that they can interpret different calls using both acoustic and seismic signals. This study aims to investigate how elephants use multiple senses to navigate their environment and interpret different calls.