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Vocal Creativity in Elephant Sound Production
- Autor(en)
- Angela Stöger-Horwath, Anton Baotic
- Abstrakt
How do elephants achieve their enormous vocal flexibility when communicating, imitating or creating idiosyncratic sounds? The mechanisms that underpin this trait combine motoric abilities
with vocal learning processes. We demonstrate the unusual production techniques used by five African savanna elephants to create idiosyncratic sounds, which they learn to produce on cue by positive reinforcement training. The elephants generate these sounds by applying nasal tissue vibration via an ingressive airflow at the trunk tip, or by contracting defined superficial muscles at
the trunk base. While the production mechanisms of the individuals performing the same sound categories are similar, they do vary in fine-tuning, revealing that each individual has its own specific sound-producing strategy. This plasticity reflects the creative and cognitive abilities associated with ‘vocal’ learning processes. The fact that these sounds were reinforced and cue-stimulated suggests that social feedback and positive reinforcement can facilitate vocal creativity and vocal learning
behavior in elephants. Revealing the mechanism and the capacity for vocal learning and sound creativity is fundamental to understanding the eloquence within the elephants’ communication system. This also helps to understand the evolution of human language and of open-ended vocal
systems, which build upon similar cognitive processes.
- Organisation(en)
- Department für Verhaltens- und Kognitionsbiologie
- Journal
- Biology
- Band
- 10
- Anzahl der Seiten
- 13
- ISSN
- 2079-7737
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.3390/biology10080750
- Publikationsdatum
- 08-2021
- Peer-reviewed
- Ja
- ÖFOS 2012
- 106054 Zoologie
- Schlagwörter
- ASJC Scopus Sachgebiete
- Allgemeine Agrar- und Biowissenschaften, Allgemeine Biochemie, Genetik und Molekularbiologie, Allgemeine Immunologie und Mikrobiologie
- Link zum Portal
- https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/de/publications/2826c749-5145-4319-81ca-05a706ff1d77