I do know that we can communicate mind to mind although it is hardly
developed yet. Yet that can be good enough. The tasks fit all our
needs as well even if we have not identified the need to include the
elephants. The task is far too onerous for the individual human
caretaker and very dangerous. This makes it possible.
This may seem fantasy but I suspect that it will merely be difficult
in the cearly going but otherwise plausible.
How Thunderstorms
Could Help Save African Elephants
By Keith Randall,
Texas A&M | October 11, 2014
Elephants can tell
when a storm is approaching, even if it’s 150 miles away.
Scientists hope one
day to use this ability to save them from being killed by the
thousands by poachers.
Researchers analyzed
data from GPS tracking devices placed on elephants in 14 different
herds in the Nambia region of Africa and plotted the elephants’
movements for seven years. The region has a distinct rainy season and
conditions are usually hot and dry with little precipitation.
The researchers found
that elephants can “sense” thunderstorms—often hundreds of
miles from their current location—and seem to predict approaching
rain several days before it occurs.
“The onset of the
rainy season there is very abrupt and lasts just a few weeks, and the
rest of the time, there is little or no rain at all,” explains
Oliver Frauenfeld, assistant professor in the geography department at
Texas A&M University.
“With the GPS device
attached to them, we learned that the elephants can detect
thunderstorms at great distances. We don’t know if they can
actually hear the thunder or if they are detecting other
low-frequency sounds generated by the storms that humans can’t
hear. But there is no doubt they know what direction the rain is.”
Getting Elephants to
Safety
Frauenfeld says the
information could have conservation implications for helping
elephants survive the rampant poaching trade in Africa by allowing
wildlife officials to better predict the location and movement of
elephant herds.
A recent study by
National Geographic estimates that at least 100,000 elephants were
killed during a three-year period from 2010-2012, and Central Africa
has lost 64 percent of the elephant population in the last decade.
Some localized populations could be wiped out entirely within the
next 10 years, the study says.
“While the
environmental trigger that causes their movements remains uncertain,
rain-system generated infrasound, which can travel great distances
and be detected by elephants, is a possible trigger for changes in
their migration patterns,” Frauenfeld adds.
“Our study suggests
that the elephants are responding to a common environmental signal.
The change in their movements occurs well before—from days to
weeks—of any rain in the elephants’ current location.”
Coauthors from the
University of Virginia, Australia’s University of New South Wales
and the University of Utah contributed to the study, which appears
in PLOS ONE.
No comments:
Post a Comment