Rosy is definitely a close relative

It’s no wonder that we humans plod along more than we limber. Our primal instincts may be chimp-like but it turns out that we share much more than strong family ties with elephants. And no, it’s not just a love for the trumpet or the soft corner for the tall, dark and handsome male. Back in the Eighties, we’d learnt from biologist Katy Payne that elephants are chatty creatures who use powerful calls to stay in touch with each other even as they move separately through the forest. Surprise, surprise, we heard that the majority of calls are made by females and have to do with, if not sex, at least reproduction. Payne also found largely women in charge, coordinating everyone’s movements with Patton-like precision!

Some years later, we heard that pachyderms had perfected the art of calling long-distance. That low-level chit-chat, by way of rumbles in the jungle, among friends and family went on throughout the day but most of the serious calls were made at night. Not because the rates were lower or the pachyderms felt most sociable then—though I’m sure that would help—but because it was quieter and calmer, and the trunk calls travelled farther.

From other scientists, we learnt that the elephant brain is similar to that of humans in terms of structure and complexity, and that the jumbo vortex has as many neurons as us humans. That Walt Disney’s Dumbo (the baby elephant with the aerodynamic ears) wasn’t to blame for his misdemeanour; like humans, elephants learn how to behave only as they grow up. It takes almost a decade for parents to teach the brats how to eat, use tools and learn their place in society. Sound familiar?

Elephants are also the only species on earth other than us to have recognizable rituals for their dead. Who hasn’t read news reports about elephants covering a dead clansman with leaves in a shallow grave?

The news coming in now is related to music. An initial encounter with elephants had left Payne disappointed as, no matter how much she tried, she couldn’t hear their sounds. Later, she realized that though she had heard nothing, she had felt a lot of strange vibrations in her chest, similar to those she experienced while listening to pipe instruments. Now, as more and more research emerges, music seems to be an unremitting tusker tune.

First, Jan Randall, a biologist at San Francisco State University in California, said it was fairly common for jumbos to communicate with each other by drumming a part of their body on the ground to create seismic and airborne vibrations. Now, Science introduces us to Louis Armstrong. No, it’s not the jazz great’s trumpet that the journal is talking about. It’s his low octave.

Low-pitched elephant calls, on a frequency range below 20Hz, may seem to have little in common with that deep, gravelly voice, but researchers have confirmed that the origins are similar. Elephants apparently make their sounds by blowing air through the larynx, just like human singers do. How do we know this? Because a team of scientists recently carried out laboratory tests on a larynx removed from an African elephant that had died naturally in a Berlin zoo.

Naturalist-author Gerald Durrell clearly knew in his heart back in 1968 what scientists are discovering only now: Rosy really was his relative.

shampa@newindianexpress.com