Wednesday, August 5, 2009

Elephant Trivia

Elephant herds post their own sentries. Whenever danger threatens, the lookout raises its trunk, and though it may be as far as a half-mile away, the rest of the herd is instantly alerted. How this communication takes place is not understood.

2 comments:

Mariana Soffer said...

Well elephants to the following in precense of danger:
Alert posture standing with head raised, ears spread, tail raised, trunk raised or turned to catch scent. So here one option is the scent.
When they are in fear they also:Trumpeting, screaming, growling, roaring. So option to is the sound.
Probably the rest of the herd is probablly alerted by the sentries, they are probabbly recognized by their particular smell and sound from the rest.

Ms. Moon said...

Another theory is that elephants can give signals through vibrations which travel through the ground and other elephants can feel through their very sensitive feet.
I heard it on NPR. It must be true.