Elephants can determine ethnicity, gender, and age from acoustic cues in human voices.

ABSTRACT: Animals can accrue direct fitness benefits by accurately classifying predatory threat according to the species of predator and the magnitude of risk associated with an encounter. Human predators present a particularly interesting cognitive challenge, as it is typically the case that different human subgroups pose radically different levels of danger to animals living around them. Although a number of prey species have proved able to discriminate between certain human categories on the basis of visual and olfactory cues, vocalizations potentially provide a much richer source of information. We now use controlled playback experiments to investigate whether family groups of free-ranging African elephants (Loxodonta africana) in Amboseli National Park, Kenya can use acoustic characteristics of

SUBMITTER: McComb K 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3986134 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature