(COLORADO) — Colorado State University (CSU) scientists have discovered a way in which elephants are just like people; they call each other by name.

According to a study published in Nature Ecology and Evolution, researchers from CSU used machine learning to record and analyze elephant vocalizations and verified that Wild African Elephants address each other with name-like calls. When researchers played the recorded calls, the elephant with the corresponding name responded with a call or approached the speaker that had broadcasted the sound. Calls meant for other elephants received less of a reaction.

“Dolphins and parrots call one another by ‘name’ by imitating the signature call of the addressee,” said lead author Michael Pardo, who conducted the study as a postdoctoral researcher at CSU and Save the Elephants, a research and conservation organization based in Kenya. “By contrast, our data suggest that elephants do not rely on imitation of the receiver’s calls to address one another, which is more similar to the way in which human names work.”

Learning to produce new sounds is rare among animals but essential for identifying individuals by name. Arbitrary communication, where a sound represents but does not imitate an idea, greatly enhances communication and is an advanced cognitive skill.

“If all we could do was make noises that sounded like what we were talking about, it would vastly limit our ability to communicate,” said co-author George Wittemyer, a professor in CSU’s Warner College of Natural Resources and chairman of the scientific board of Save the Elephants.

According to Wittemyer, the use of arbitrary vocal names is evidence that elephants may be capable of abstract thought.

In the video below, Wittemyer explains how the insight into elephant communication came about.

Kurt Fristrup, a research scientist at CSU’s Walter Scott, Jr. College of Engineering, developed a new signal processing technique to detect subtle differences in elephant calls. Fristrup and Pardo then trained a machine-learning model to accurately identify which elephant each call was directed to, using only the sound of the call.

Elephants are expressive animals, and their reactions are easy to read for those familiar with them, according to Wittemyer. When researchers played back samples, the elephants responded energetically and positively to recordings of their friends and family calling to them. They did not react enthusiastically or move toward calls directed to others, demonstrating they recognized their names.

In the video below from Pardo, researchers play a recording of the low, rumbling vocalization of an elephant to the individual associated with the “name,” and the elephant responds with a vocalization and flapping ears.

The four-year research included 14 months of intensive fieldwork in Kenya, following elephants in a vehicle and recording their vocalizations. Researchers captured about 470 distinct calls from 101 callers directed at 117 receivers in Samburu National Reserve and Amboseli National Park.

Gaining insight into elephant communication and cognitive abilities can strengthen the case for their conservation. Elephants are classified as endangered, as poaching for their ivory tusks is still a problem today. Additionally, encroaching development has caused excessive habitat loss. Because of their size, they need a lot of space and when their territory is limited by development, they can be destructive to property and hazardous to people.

Research into the area of elephant communication is in the early stages, but Wittemyer dreams of a day when we can communicate back.

“It’s tough to live with elephants when you’re trying to share a landscape and they’re eating crops,” Wittemyer said. “I’d like to be able to warn them, ‘Do not come here. You’re going to be killed if you come here.’”

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