Study: Elephants have 'caller ID' ability

STANFORD, Calif., May 30 (UPI) -- U.S. scientists have determined wild herds of African elephants communicating by vibrations in the ground can determine which animal produced the vibrations.

The Stanford University School of Medicine researchers have discovered the animals' seismic communication system is so sophisticated, the elephants have their own version of "caller ID."

"It's a much richer communication system than we thought," said Caitlin O'Connell-Rodwell, an ecologist who discovered the underground communication system 14 years ago.

In the latest study, she measured the ability of elephants to recognize whether an underground message is delivered by a familiar or unfamiliar source. She said she hopes to draw analogies between humans and elephants in research conducted with people and hearing implants, since hearing-impaired people are "much better at feeling vibrations."

Past studies by O'Connell-Rodwell and colleagues have shown that when African elephants stomp and rumble as a predator approaches, distant elephants can get the news by feeling the ground ripple through their feet or trunk. The new study suggests not only can the elephants receive and interpret underground calls but they can distinguish between specific callers.

The findings are to appear in the Journal of the Acoustical Society of America.