Trunk Calls Soothe Lonely Elephants

The introduction of the smartphone, especially the Apple iPhone, began the mad dash to create applications or apps for everything. Lost? Can’t speak the language? Want to find a good ethnic restaurant? There are apps for all those things. But what if your elephant is sad and lonely? Is there an app for that?

Actually, you don’t need any high tech special applications. A regular cell phone with speakerphone capability will do just fine. That’s what they used to calm and reassure two Bengal elephants that had been given to the Okinawa Zoo in Japan. Once the elephants had been relocated and their trainers, or mahouts, returned to India, the homesick elephants became depressed and hard to control. What to do?

The Japanese handlers made quick calls to the mahouts familiar to Devi and Rahul, the lonely elephants. Sure enough, as soon as they started receiving commands from familiar voices, the elephants perked right up. One of the mahouts even sings folk songs to them, according to the story reported in The Times of India. There’s no mention of the elephants joining in the singing, although they certainly could if they wanted to.

The clever Japanese officials of the Okinawa Zoo also found a way to limit the cost of all those long distance calls to India. No, they didn’t Skype the elephant exhibit. What they did do is record the mahout’s voice over the phone so they can play it back whenever Devi or Rahul need a little boost in spirit.

It seems that elephants are more like us than we thought. They form natural societies in the wild, with the older matriarchs looking after the youngsters and teaching them the lay of the land. Knowing where the water holes are during the dry season is truly a matter of life and death. Elephants rescue other elephants in trouble and grieve the way we do when one of the herd dies.

Do elephants have emotions? You bet they do. They trumpet with delight when they recognize another elephant they haven’t seen in years. They get depressed when left alone. Indian elephants bond with the human mahouts who raise them and, as they story shows, can recognize and respond to their voices even through the decidedly low fidelity connection of a mobile phone.

So how does this apply if you don’t happen to have an elephant in your care? There are others who will also respond with delight to the sound of a loved one they haven’t heard from in awhile. How about your mom? It is Mother’s Day this Sunday... and you do have a phone!

Of Course Elephants Text

The next time you feel like complaining about how hard it is to text using those tiny little buttons on your cell phone, just remember that somewhere in Kenya an elephant is probably texting right now. You don't hear THEM complaining about big feet, little buttons. What? Elephants text?

Of course elephants send text messages. You expect them to use push to talk? Actually, elephants don't really need to put five other elephants in their favorites list. They can communicate audibly using low frequencies called infrasonics that carry for miles. It's when they need to tell us something that the cell phones get activated.

Don't expect to catch site of an elephant whipping out an iPhone when you are on safari. The text messaging they do is via some very specialized equipment and at our request, not theirs. But it works to everyone's benefit. In this case, the cellular technology has been pressed into service to make sure that elephants and humans can live in harmony.

The idea is to let wildlife rangers know when elephants are going after farmer's crops, so they can be led back to their protected areas before any violence ensues. Even in a land as vast and rural as Africa, there just aren't enough wild spaces left so that people and elephants will naturally keep their distance. As a result of human settlements encroaching more and more on what was once wilderness area, farmers and elephants are competing for the same swaths of land. Elephants go after the farmer's cash crops. Farmer's defend what they have worked so hard to produce and things get violent. Sometimes the elephants win and there are fewer farmers. Sometimes the farmers win and there are a few less elephants.

This is what the wireless notification system has been designed to prevent. The way it works is that a specially designed mobile transmitter is built into a collar that the elephant wears. Inside the electronics box is a mobile phone SIM card, GPS receiver, wireless transmitter and battery pack. A virtual fence is programmed into the system so that when an elephant approaches the limit of the Ol Pejeta conservancy, a warning message is transmitted to park rangers. They can then intercept the wayward elephant before there is a problem.

It works! By redirecting elephants back to their protected territory, crop raiding has been reduced significantly. The elephants also learn where their new territorial limits are and share that information with the herd. In a way, it's like invisible dog fencing but for a much, much larger animal and without anyone getting a shock. Just text messages.

Now if YOU want to send text messages, you'll need a more human scale phone. You'll find many special offers, including free phones, at Cell Phone Plans Finder.

If you want to help protect elephants in their habitat, visit Save The Elephants. In the United States, former circus and zoo elephants are protected and nurtured at The Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee and the Performing Animal Wildlife Sanctuary (PAWS).

Oh, Give Me a Home Where the Elephants Phone

"I'm sorry, the elephant isn't available. Would you care to hold the lion?"

Oh, that joke was a lot funnier back when telephones had operators... and lines. Now that about a quarter of us don't even have a landline, we'll have to come up with cellular-centric humor if we want anyone to get it.

"Hey, do you know how to make an elephant phone?"

"No?"

"Well, you start out with a three foot long plastic case." (ROSL)

That's "rolling on the Savanna laughing", just in case you wondered.

Anyway, what's inspired all of this is a recent news story called "Elephants 'Phone' Friends With Rumbles" offered by the Discovery Channel. It's about a study of how elephants find their way back to their herd when they have wandered too far away to rely on sight or smell.

Turns out that elephants have their own wireless communications based on infrasonics. This is the range of audio frequencies below human hearing but still useful to animals. In this case, 13 to 35 Hz. Elephants are so large that they can resonate to emit powerful vocalizations in that extremely low frequency range. Those rumbles can travel over a mile and a half to reach distant herd members.

Even more interesting, elephants seem to have developed a form of audible Caller ID. Scientists discovered that an elephant was more inclined to respond to a rumble if they had a close affiliation with the caller. Otherwise they might choose not to answer.

Elephants also increase the power of their infrasonic vocalizations when they have to communicate over longer distances. That's not unlike the way cell phones automatically adjust their transmitter power depending on how close to the cellular tower they happen to be.

As humans we think we are so smart inventing all this sophisticated new technology, when nature has already developed analogous systems that do essentially the same thing. Perhaps infrasonic communication isn't totally lost on people. Ever notice how you can "feel" the rumble of the pizza delivery car pulling into your driveway, even in the dead of winter with the doors and windows shut? There may be a little pachyderm packed into all of us.

If you sense that kinship, you might be interested in knowing that October is Elephant Awareness Month, with special doings related to the Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee. You'll enjoy the many elephants there, and at the Performing Animal Wildlife Sanctuary (P.A.W.S) in California.

Of course, if you expect to communicate with your human friends over long distances you'll want the best technology can offer in the way of wireless communications. That's what you find at Cell Phone Plans Finder. Check today's specials. Many great phones are available free, some even with cash rebates.