Hi all,

I apologize that we have been so quiet for so long.  We are working on a major update for our website as well as on several other projects with deadlines, and these activities have limited our ability to focus on our blog. In addition we have had family visiting from around the world.

The update on our website will include a long awaited database of elephant calls and we have much to do to prepare the sounds and text for the database. I thought that I could bring you along with me as I work – sharing examples of the calls as I prepare the files. Elephant rumbles are very low frequency calls and I originally saved individual calls at a low sample rate. While this is perfect for analysis, to make the MP3 files necessary for the database and for sharing with you I need to go back the original recordings. This is quite a time consuming job – but it must be done! On WildlifeDirect I am restricted for the time being to a maximum file size of 300 KB – and that really limits what we can share with you – but I will do my best. Let me start by introducing you to some different overall call types before I get into the calls African elephants produce in specific behavioral contexts.

Listen to the different call types. Notice that elephants sometimes combine call types - as for instance a bark and a rumble, or a rumble and a roar:

Rumble

Rev

Roar

Cry

Bark

Grunt

Husky-cry

Harmonic-play-trumpet

Nasal-play-trumpet

Snort

Then there are learned calls which I will come back to later.

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