How Elephants Communicate

Elephants are known for their loud trumpeting calls, but much of their communication cannot be heard by humans at all. In the 1980s, the biologist Katy Payne noticed a strange throbbing in the air while she was watching elephants at a zoo in Oregon. She suspected that the animals were producing sounds too low for the human ear to detect, a type of sound known as infrasound.

Recordings later confirmed her idea. Elephants produce deep rumbles, many of which are partly or completely below the range of human hearing. Because low sounds travel farther than high sounds, these calls can be detected by other elephants several kilometers away. Researchers believe elephants use them to keep their family groups together and to find partners during the mating season.

Elephants may also sense these vibrations through the ground. Studies suggest that they can feel them through sensitive areas in their feet and trunks. When an elephant seems to be listening carefully, it sometimes lifts one foot off the ground or presses its trunk against the soil, behavior that may help it pick up distant signals.