PALO ALTO, Calif., Oct. 2 (UPI) -- When it's time for elephants at an African watering hole to leave, the matriarch initiates a coordinated "conversation" with herd leaders, researchers say.
The matriarch kicks off the conversation with what scientists have dubbed a "let's-go rumble" while steadily flapping her ears, setting off a series of back and forth vocalizations, or rumbles, within the group before the entire family finally departs, Stanford University researchers report in the journal Bioacoustics.