“Elephants Actually Have A Whole Range Of Different Vocalisations”

Making noises through their trunks isn’t the only way elephants communicate. Dr Beth Mortimer of Oxford University reveals their secret language.

- Dr Beth Mortimer

What noises does an elephant make?

In terms of purposeful signals, those are made by vocalisations – using their vocal cords the same way that we do when we’re talking. People have heard of ‘trumpets’, but elephants have a whole range of vocalisations. The ones that go through the ground are known as ‘rumbles’ because they’re infrasonic vibrations – ultrasound is super-high frequency; infrasound is super-low frequency, under 20 Hertz. We can’t hear this type of vocalisation but, if you’re close enough to an elephant, you can feel it. It’s like a super-loud bass. We don’t know for sure how the elephants detect ground vibrations, but it’s either through sensors under their feet – similar to those we have in our skin – or through the feet, so the vibration travels up the leg bones to the middle ear, known as a bone-conduction method.