Antiphonal exchanges in african elephants (loxodonta africana): Collective response to a shared stimulus, social facilitation, or true communicative event?
Abstract
Abstract Female African elephants are thought to exchange 'rumble' vocalizations, but such temporally associated calls may not constitute communicative events. Affiliated females are more likely to engage in antiphonal calling, but affiliation is defined according to time spent in proximity. Affiliated partners may vocalize in sequence simply because their proximity causes them to collectively respond to shared external stimuli or due to a social facilitation effect. We used bi-variate and partial correlation analyses to test for the independent effects of the strength of the social relationship and distance between vocal partners on the likelihood of a vocal response. Female African elephants at Disney's Animal Kingdom were video-taped and outfitted with audio-recording collars that allowed for the individual identification of low-frequency rumbles. Affiliation had a strong influence on response likelihood, even after controlling for the effects of the distance between vocalizing partners. Further, the distance between vocalizing partners did not correlate with response likelihood, and factoring out the effects of affiliation did not significantly alter this result. These results suggest that rumble exchanges are communicative events that reflect social bonds, not simply artifacts of increased proximity and, therefore, provide support for functional hypotheses concerning rumble exchanges in wild African elephants.
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Antiphonal rumble calls in female elephants are true communicative events rather than common responses to shared external stimuli.
“In [41], the authors were able to further explore the functionality of these antiphonal rumble calls, and concluded that these temporarily associated rumbles were true communicative events, rather than common responses to shared external stimuli.”
From Rules of departure: Antiphony and personalized vocal spaces in wild male elephant group coordination (2024) · cites this paper as [41]
True antiphonal vocalizations, also called cooperative vocal turn-taking, have been reported in elephants only in families and not in male groups, with anecdotal reporting in male groups.
“True antiphonal vocalizations, also called cooperative vocal turn-taking, have been reported in the scientific literature - other than in humans - in a few species including apes [28,29], monkeys [30-34], and a few other primates, cetaceans [35-37], [38], meerkats [39], and elephants [16,40,41] (though only in families and not in male groups; but see [42] for anecdotal reporting).”
From Rules of departure: Antiphony and personalized vocal spaces in wild male elephant group coordination (2024) · cites this paper as [41]
The functionality of antiphonal exchanges in female elephants includes coordination of herd movements and reinforcement of social bonds during reunions.
“They opined that the functionality of these antiphonal exchanges includes coordination of the herd's movements and reinforcement of social bonds between herd members during reunions.”
From Rules of departure: Antiphony and personalized vocal spaces in wild male elephant group coordination (2024) · cites this paper as [41]
In the elephants in this study, socially affiliated individuals are preferred vocal partners.
“Finally, socially affiliated bonobos are preferred vocal partners, a finding that holds true for the elephants in our study and those of [40] and [41].”
From Rules of departure: Antiphony and personalized vocal spaces in wild male elephant group coordination (2024) · cites this paper as [41]
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Cited by 19
- Authors
- Savage, A., Soltis, J., Leighty, K., & Leong, K.
- Affiliations
- 1Education and Science, Disney's Animal Kingdom, Lake Buena Vista, FL 32830, USA
- 2Education and Science, Disney's Animal Kingdom, Lake Buena Vista, FL 32830, USA
- 3Education and Science, Disney's Animal Kingdom, Lake Buena Vista, FL 32830, USA; Animal Programs Administration, P.O. Box 10000, Lake Buena Vista, FL 32830, USA
- National Park Service (US)
- Venue
- Behaviour
- Publisher
- Walter de Gruyter GmbH
- Published
- 2008
- Volume
- 145
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 297-312
- ISSN
- 0005-7959 (ISSN-L)
- 1568-539X
- OpenAlex
- W2043949474
- Cited by
- 19
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2025: 1 · 2024: 2 · 2022: 3 · 2021: 1 · 2017: 1 · 2014: 1 · 2013: 2 · 2012: 1
- FWCI
- 1.50
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Behaviour (publishedVersion)
- e-Publications@Marquette (Marquette University) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- National Science Foundation
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Developmental Biology › Animal Vocal Communication and Behavior
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Ecology › Marine animal studies overview
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Primate Behavior and Ecology
- Keywords
- Loxodonta africana, vocal communication, social affiliation, social facilitation, female elephants, vocal responses, social bonds
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