University of Queensland researchers have found African elephants use their acute sense of smell as a form of communication.
Professor Louw Hoffman from UQ’s Queensland Alliance of Agriculture and Food Innovation co-led a study of elephants in wildlife parks in Malawi, which found that smell was used to distinguish characteristics including age, health, reproductive status and family relationships between elephants.
“We tested the DNA, glands, urine and manure of 113 African elephants to identify family groupings,” Professor Hoffman said.
Professor Hoffman said elephants could be trained to sense many things, including blood and explosives.
“These findings show elephants are complex creatures, and sound is not their only form of communication,” he said.
“We see humans as the apex, but we now know elephants are one of many animals that have senses more finely attuned than ours.
“There is a lot we can learn from the elephant.”
The study was co-led by Dr Katharina von Dürckheim and Professor Alison Leslie from the University of Stellenbosch.
The research was published in Scientific Reports.
