LaterSelf-names are not something unique to humans.. also they elephants Africans are called and they question each other with different calls, specific to each individual.
This is proven by a study involving the University of Colorado (USA) and the NGOs Save the Elephants, Elephant Voices and the Amboseli Trust for Elephants research project.
Researchers recall: A characteristic feature of spoken human language is the use of ‘vocal tags’, i.e. a learned sound. This refers to a specific object or a specific individual. “Many species produce calls that functionally refer to food and predators, but the production of these calls is usually innate.”
Once learned, these voice tags allow for more flexible communication and allow new tags to be created for other references. “These are the basis of the human ability to express symbolic thought.”
However, this study points out that there are very few known examples of the use of vocal tags, especially in other animal species. referring to personal names. “The names must be Includes vocal learningBecause an individual cannot be born knowing the names of all his future social acquaintances.”
Certainly, African elephants are an exception. “Although the function of this vocal learning ability is unknown, they are among the few mammals that can imitate novel sounds.”
For this study, researchers analyzed the sounds communicated by groups of wild elephant calves in the African savannah, assessing whether they contained individual sound tags. 527 calls were examined in Samburu in northern Kenya and 98 calls in Amboseli National Park in southern Kenya.. These were calls in which both the caller and the person receiving the message were identified.
Just like people do
The results of the research reveal the following: elephants ‘tag’ their conspecifics; this is “a phenomenon previously known to occur only in human language.”.
Experts say this is a particularly “advantageous” ability for elephants; because the samples often remain out of sight of their closely associated social companions and therefore produce “contact sounds to communicate” over long distances.
Similarly, researchers suggest that this ‘tagging’ may be the main function of learning vocal production in wild elephants. The scientists add that this discovery “provides an opportunity to investigate the pressures that may have led to the evolution of this rare ability.”
Reference work: https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.08.25.554872v1.full
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