Elephants greet each other by flapping ears and making little rumbly sounds

Elephants, like humans, have various greeting cues that they use while meeting friends and loved ones, a new research shows. When they reunite with friends, they greet each other with ear flaps, rumbles and other deliberate sounds and gestures.

The study shows elephants communicate intentionally and also customise their greetings depending on what other elephants are doing. For instance, when another elephant is already paying attention, elephants are more likely to use visual gestures; otherwise, they are more likely to use touch.

The study was published on May 9 in the journal Communications Biology.

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"For me, it was really exciting to finally do this, to finally understand how they use their bodies to communicate," study lead author Vesta Eleuteri, a graduate student at the University of Vienna, told Live Science. "It's just mind-blowing that they do rely on it so much, but it's so overlooked."

The art and science of Elephant communication

Scientists earlier knew that elephants communicate from up to miles away using deep rumbles that are too low for humans to hear but due to their massive years, elephants are able to hear such sounds with ease. Their long trunks are also excellent organs, which allow them to sniff out age, kinship, and even social groups among both elephants and people.

Previous elephant communication research has tended to focus on sound and smell separately, Eleuteri said, rather than on how those and other senses might work together.

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Eleuteri and her team took a different approach. They counted visual gestures, such as ear flapping and trunk reaching along with vocalisations, touches and scent-related behaviours.

The team tracked which gestures and sounds occurred together. They found that low rumble noises were often accompanied by ear flapping. This combination was the most common greeting they recorded.

The recurring combination suggested the elephants wanted to communicate, Eleuteri said. The elephants also usually looked at each other before gesturing, further reinforcing that idea.

Elephant caretakers already had some sense of their social dynamics. They used a proxy for elephant friendship: the "nearest neighbour index." Twice a month, elephant carers checked to see which elephants were standing closest to each other. They eventually chose to study six elephants that were closely bonded.

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This study implies that elephants live in complex social worlds, with family groups separating, coming together and keeping track of complex relationships over time, just like humans

"They have long lives like humans. They can live up to 70 years and they have a similar trajectory," Eleuteri said.

(With inputs from agencies)