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American Morning

Look at How Elephants Communicate

Aired June 10, 2002 - 08:58   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: So have you heard what one elephant said to the other? No, it's not a joke. It's the subject of a scientific study.

And CNN's Jeanne Moos reports on what researchers overheard while listening in on a herd of elephants.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEANNE MOOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Ever wonder what elephants talk about? Neither did we, until we heard from acoustic biologist Katie Payne (ph). She speaks elephant.

(on camera): What does it mean again?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Let's go.

MOOS (voice-over): Prepare for a close encounter with the animal mind. New York's Wildlife Conservation Society sponsored Payne's (ph) lecture, eavesdropping on giants."

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This ear flopping means terribly exciting.

MOOS: The cause of the excitement, elephants mating. Payne (ph) and fellow researchers shot this footage in Africa from atop an observation post.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is interesting. When you see the male stand up like that, you realize that the exercise that they train elephants to do in circuses and zoos, to stand on their hand legs is not all that artificial.

MOOS: Acoustically speaking, what happens before and after mating is most interesting. The female announcing she's ready and willing. And afterward, elephants come to sniff the spot where the mating took place. The experts don't know what they're saying, though one audience member hazarded a guess.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think it's gossip.

MOOS: And listen in on a conversation between two females greeting one another after a long separation.

During the lecture, the audio malfunctioned, so Payne (ph) took over.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'll do it...

MOOS: Payne's (ph) claim to fame was a discovery that as much as two-thirds of what elephants communicate is infrasound, below the frequency of human hearing.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is very low energy that we cannot hear down here.

RICHARD LATTIS, WILDLIFE CONSERVATION SOC.: If you're around them enough, you can feel these low vibrating sounds.

MOOS: In a recording made at a zoo, the elephant seemed silent, but speeding up the tape 10 times raises the pitch 2 1/2 octaves, making the elephant sounds audible to the human ear. No wonder she called her book "Silent Thunder." Infrasound can travel for several miles. Here, we think our herd is so smart, communicating with our cell phones and e-mail. The mother of the animated elephant Dumbo sang to her child.

(SINGING)

MOOS: But listen to the cry of a real baby. An adult from another family was manhandling the infant. To the rescue, the infant's own family. The saddest elephant voices we heard came from elephant's attempting to resurrect an infant that had died. One young male was particularly upset.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And he attempted to lift the body 57 different times.

MOOS: Payne (ph) doesn't think elephants string together sounds the way we do words, but researchers have identified 71 calls with specific meanings.

Jeanne Moos, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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