Elephants

[Valorie (Admin)]

This is where you can ask your questions and share information amongst each other about the Elephants we have seen or heard about on the Cam.

[Lisa]

Thanks Val this is great. A regular discussion would have meant searching for it everytime..this way we can post at will and find the discussion easily!
Bring it on Stacy we have elephnat discussion!
yeah!

[Penzi Ndovu]

Wow, what a great idea..I wil love this discussion...yippe my fav critter..lol

[Margo (kiotewoman)]

Thanks Valorie. I'm anxious to see what we learn here. Ellies Rule!!!!

[Lisa]

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[Lisa]

in this video (Sagresta) we were all amused by the "dancing" of this little ellie. On a later drive Pieter was disucssing a study done on the seismic communication of elephants by way of their feet! Yes their feet. Apparently the theory is that they can pick up vibrations from miles away effectively communicating with other elephants or picking up information on other animals etc. It is theorized that elephants actually sensed the tsunami in SE Asia a few years ago and made it to higher ground well before the waves hit. Now scientists are using elephants to act as an early warning system for storms and earthquakes!
so watch this little guy - as he hovers his feet over the ground looking unblanaced but maybe he is actually learning how to listen? It must be pretty amazing to a young elephant to hear these vibrations for the first time! There are other physical actions and indicators of this "listening" behaviour, flattening ears back against their heads and freezing is one.
Anway I thought we could watch out for these behvaiours when we have ellie sightings!
There is an extended article and link in Wildlife Issues group.

[Stacy]

Thanks for the new discussion topic Val! Excellent!

I think that it is possible that this little guy was testing out something to do with seismic communication. Did you notice that shortly after he did his little shuffle more of the herd showed up. Maybe he was somehow sensing their presence?

I really need to read up more on elephant communication. Its so fascinating.

[Margo (kiotewoman)]

This is great Lisa, Thanks! I seem to remember hearing about this a while back, but can't remember where I heard it. I agree that we need to pay close attention next time and maybe Pieter can tell us more about it.

[Lisa]

in wildlife issues group there is a disucssion about it and a link to an article about it. The scientist that Pieter mentioned on the drive and her work studying sound communication techniques of elephants.
Its very interesting I will try to post the link here shortly. yes stacy I asked Val to make this its onw catagry not just a discussion. NOw we can find it easily when we have the urge to chat about our ellies. any luck ladies on ID'ing our collared girl? I emailed the Kruger organization doing the study currently and asked if there was access to a photo directory of the ellies being collared.

[Stacy]

would be interesting to see if they had some sort of album online. Then again would they be expecting a bunch of crazy cam watchers to see one of their ellies online? lol

I was really glad to see that the guys really went at my question about the collared ellie during the fireside chat though. I missed it but I did catch the recordings someone made and posted. I think I will go and rewatch it since there is no drive today. I thought I would catch the last half. OH well!

[Lisa]

they do have photos but all bulls no females.
and crazy??? who you calling crazy ;)

[Lisa]

Stacy do you have the pic of our collared elephant? I emailed the man who runs the collaring program out of Kruger. He said to email him the picture and they will try to ID her. Their library of pics is too big to upload and he referred to the save the elephants website but from what I remember most of those animals collared were bulls. anyway I will email the pic and hopefully we will get an ID and offically be armchair wildlife biologists!

[Stacy]

awesome! I will go through my files and video on here to get some better shots.