TThe old saying that “an elephant never forgets” is true to some extent. Between excellent spatial memory and the ability to remember individual elephants and people facesElephants have long been respected for their powers of memory. And researchers working with wild elephants have found that this remarkable memory ability may be critical to the conservation of the endangered animal.
African elephants, the world's largest land animal, may be using their memory to acclimate to the presence of drones, which could collect vital data to help their endangered populations, suggests a team made up of scientists from the nonprofit conservation group Save the Elephants. Scientists have published their conclusions recently in Scientific reports.
African savannah elephants (African loxodonta) They initially encountered drones (i.e., unmanned aerial vehicles) as a method for farmers to move herds away from their crops. Raids on elephant crops are a serious problem in parts of Africa, and the noise and flashing lights of drones flying within 50 meters of elephants bothered them so much that they sent escape. So while drones have been used to monitor other animals, they were not considered suitable for elephants.
Thus, scientists from Save the Elephants, the University of Oxford, the University of Sussex and the University of Colorado at Boulder conducted 35 trials using quadcopter drones to monitor elephants in two northern Kenyan reserves. The researchers flew and recorded the behavior of elephants to determine whether the animals could acclimate to drones in single trials and repeated observations. The drones were deployed using protocols that were least likely to disturb the elephants, such as launching from a distance of at least 1,600 feet and always downwind to reduce noise.
Drones caused anxiety reactions in elephants about half the time. These behaviors included elephants stopping feeding with their trunks raised or showing excitement by shaking their heads. However, the reactions were mostly limited to the first minute of the drones' arrival, after which the animals learned to ignore them and returned to their typical behavior. Moreover, some elephants were less reactive in repeated drone trials compared to their first drone exposure, even after a gap of 355 days.
“Our results suggest that these habituation effects can last for months, if not years, demonstrating the learning and adaptability that elephants are already well known for,” said co-author Angus Carey-Douglas, a scientist at Save the Elephants, in his paper. statement.
Read more: “The natural world is the world of elephants»
Elephants' tolerance to drones opens up the possibility of a minimally invasive and affordable way to monitor herds. Because elephants are large and travel in groups, they are in some ways ideal candidates for drone research. The aircraft are equipped with cameras and sensors that can collect data on previously unseen aspects of elephants' individual and social behavior.
“This study demonstrates the power of a new and rapidly developing technology that allows us to probe even deeper into the secret lives of elephants,” said evolutionary biologist and Oxford University co-author Fritz Vollrath.
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Main image: © Jane Vinyard / Save the Elephants
