Study
Wild elephant (Loxodonta africana) breeding herds respond to artificially transmitted seismic stimuli
O'Connell-Rodwell, Caitlin E.; Wood, Jason D.; Rodwell, Timothy C.; Puria, Sunil; Partan, Sarah R.; Keefe, Robert; Shriver, Deborah; Arnason, Byron T.; Hart, Lynette A.
Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology, 2006
Alarm calls were converted into ground vibration and transmitted through the earth at a waterhole, with no airborne sound, while herd behaviour was filmed.
- Studied in
- Loxodonta africana
- Sample size
- wild breeding herds at a waterhole in Namibia
Herds responded to the seismic-only stimulus with alerting and defensive bunching.
What it means
The authors' reading, and ours. Where they differ, that difference is the point.
How the authors put it
Elephants detect and respond to conspecific signals travelling through the ground as well as through the air.
How NatureHQ reads it
The reason to care about this is that it changes the range over which elephants can communicate: seismic waves travel further than low-frequency sound in some conditions. How the signal is detected — through the feet and trunk, and possibly through bone conduction to the ear — is still being worked out, so "elephants hear with their feet" is a shorthand rather than a description.
- Field playback with limited replication.
- Separating a purely seismic response from residual airborne cues is difficult outdoors.
- The detection pathway remains partly unresolved.
What this study is used for on NatureHQ
One study can inform several subjects. Here is everywhere this one is cited.
Published by: Springer journalsPublished in a Springer journal.
doi.org/10.1007/s00265-005-0136-2
This reference was resolved automatically against Crossref and OpenAlex on 2026-08-11.
NatureHQ summarises research in its own words and does not reproduce published text. Reviewed 2026-08-09.