In the past year of our Bio-X study, we have
characterized the properties of elephant vocalizations
as they propagate in the ground as Rayleigh
waves and also established that wild elephants
can detect seismic cues. We have also documented
that elephants have vibration sensitive corpuscles
in their feet which may be the mechanism by
which elephants can detect the vibrations that
their vocalizations produce.
Amongst our many
goals for next year, we hope to establish how
far an elephant vocalization can travel in
the ground, how far an elephant is able to
detect these seismic vocalizations, and to
what extent an elephant is capable of distinguishing
biologically meaningful information from the
seismic cues they can detect. |
