Good Vibrations Could Save Horny Elephant Lives

For elephants, when it's time for love, they really can feel the earth move under their feet. Now scientists in Namibia are all excited about using the sound of love as a life saving device.

It's an often overlooked fact that nature has ways of communicating that would put a cell phone company to shame. How about message through the very ground on which you stand, say? Yep,elephants do it all the time,communicating via a wide variety of rumbles in the earth. Speaking of rumbles, Namibia is one of the countries in which violent confrontations between irate farmers and rampaging elephants are not uncommon. With increasing population pressure spurring them on, zoologists in Namibia desperate for solutions are trying to harness these seismic social calls - to lure rampaging males back to safety. They played the low rumble of a female on heat to bulls in must (a state of sexual readiness), who turned and headed for the vibration source. The testing are for the project is the flashpoint of Etosha National Park, scene of deadly farmer/elephant clashes, with casualties on both sides. The trials are being led by Dr Caitlin O'Connell-Rodwell, of Stanford University and initial results are encouraging. "The bulls in must were very responsive. We have shown that we can set the elephants on a very specific trajectory," Dr O'Connell-Rodwell told the BBC. "At the watering hole, we waited for them to arrive, and then used the calls to set them on one path, and then turn them back round again. "You see the male in the video pressing his trunk against the ground. He's on a mission – he's looking for that female in oestrus," she said. "We suggest this could be used as a tool by the park rangers – to help the elephants to stay out of trouble". Of which there is aplenty; elephants damage crops, break water installations, destroy dwellings and many end up shot dead. Even though elephants are renowned for their ability to detect vibrations through the ground at great distances. including the vibrations of frisky females, a phase which only occurs every five years, no one had ever thought of using these calls in this way before. Dr O'Connell-Rodwell, who's been an elephant behaviourist for 15 years, said it has always been in the back of her mind to explore using this behaviour to reduce the potential for clashes. To test her idea, a speaker buried in the ground to play the oestrus call to males. How far away the elephants can sense vibrations is still a mystery, but it's known the sound travels through their fore-legs and up through their bones to the middle ear bone. While they can hear mating calls at distances of up to 10km (six miles), they may be able to sense the vibrations even further. Human encroachment on elephant range is adding a new factor whose impact on the study is important to measure, researchers say. There is evidence that elephants are being increasingly disturbed by noise, enough so in some cases to change behaviour patterns. It's still not known much elephants rely on vibrations, as compared to audible sounds but the early success of this project suggest it may be just as, if not more important, in saving elephants lives. The research was funded by Utopia Scientific, a non-profit organisation.