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+--- Thread: Elephants use names to identify each other (/showthread.php?tid=7978)
Elephants use names to identify each other - Catherine - 06-12-2024
Scientists studying elephants have determined that they use names for each other when they are talking. Sometimes when an elephant is speaking it is addressing the whole herd. Sometimes just one elephant is being addressed and that one elephant responds.
Use of abstract names is rare. Humans do it. We use names. Dolphins and some birds in the parrot family seem to use names.
More study is needed to determine the actual names. Also more study is needed to determine if elephants have names for places as well.
https://www.newscientist.com/article/2434896-elephants-seem-to-invent-names-for-each-other/
Humans are no so unique after all. There are many things that we have thought were strictly human that we now know exist in the animal world.
Who knows how many other species will turn out to use names. It will be interesting to find out what the actual names are. Just a thought, but do elephants have names for the humans they know. If so, what sort of names do they call us.