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Elephants have fascinated people for centuries. Efforts to understand their complex societies have led to many unexpected discoveries. Most notably was the realization that elephants produce vocalizations that are often below the range of human hearing. These “infrasonic” calls have been the subject of many studies on wild elephants. While research in the wild has shed light on the complex nature of elephant society, there are still many unanswered questions. That’s where studies on captive elephants can be extremely helpful to compliment and augment the existing information on elephant behavior and communication.
.gif) At Disney’s Animal Kingdom, our elephant exhibit is a large complex habitat that mimics the savannahs of Africa. We have a large social group of elephants that was initially established in 1997 and 1998 with 6 adult females and 2 adult males, and over the years has grown to include one additional adult female and 3 new calves born at the facility. This group closely resembles the core social unit of wild African elephants, the female family, and the exhibit has many features found in their natural habitat, so this was an ideal environment to build on existing knowledge of African elephant society and vocal communication. In December of 1999, the Wildlife Tracking Center team at Disney’s Animal Kingdom began a research program to increase our understanding of African elephant vocal communication. We are unique in that we use sophisticated equipment and technology that allows us to identify individual elephant vocalizations, track elephant locations in the exhibit, capture their ongoing social behavior, and monitor their hormonal cycles. Using this unique combination of information, we can answer questions that relate vocal activity to other aspects of elephant social _mel.gif) behavior and to their reproduction. Since our studies began we have had the opportunity to ask and answer a number of interesting questions, but in many ways we are still in the process of trying to understand African elephants. That is the joy of working with these magnificent animals: once you have answered one question there are still many more waiting to be answered. Please join us on our adventure to crack the code of elephant communication, and find out “what the rumbling is all about”.
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