The coordinated departure rumble was known from tight-knit family groups, where it keeps a family together as it moves. Male elephants are described as living in loose social groups, so nobody expected to find it among them. Recordings at a waterhole in Namibia caught a run of low calls just before the males left together. Who starts it?
Curiosity counts. Here is the answer.
A run of rumbles, with several males taking part. One low call comes first, usually from a dominant or socially well-connected individual, others answer with calls of their own, and only then does the group move. The departure is not immediate and does not always follow, which is the detail that matters: a single leader walking off would need no answers at all. This is one waterhole observed across four field seasons, and a rumble before leaving is not proof that each elephant is voting in any human sense.
Usually a or well-connected male, and then others answer. The calls come as a sequence rather than a single signal, with individual voices identifiable in order, and the group does not always move at once. That is why the researchers read it as coordination, something like a , rather than as a command issued and obeyed.
The surprise lives in a prior assumption. Coordinated departure rumbles were documented in elephant families led by matriarchs, and males are generally described as loosely social, so whether males coordinate at all was an open question.
What the recordings caught is a sequence, not a signal. Just before a joint departure several low rumbles come one after another, in an order that can be traced to known individuals, with the first usually from a dominant or socially well-connected male.
The distinction between a command and a coordination is the entire interpretation. A command would need one call and immediate movement. Here several elephants take part, the departure is not always immediate, and sometimes it does not happen, which reads as a group converging rather than obeying.
The restraint is warranted. This is observational work at one waterhole across four field seasons, with known individuals, and a rumble before leaving is not proof that anybody voted. What it does establish is that bulls with real talk their way out of a waterhole together.
wat. Before leaving the waterhole, bonded males joined one after another in a coordination rumble that a central individual began.
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Male social life includes bonds, leadership and joint decisions, rather than competition alone, which is not how bull elephants are usually described.
How do we know?
Vocalizations and behavior of known individuals were recorded at Mushara waterhole in Etosha National Park, Namibia, across the June and July field seasons of 2005, 2007, 2011 and 2017. The analysis tracked which elephants called, in what order, and who started the departure.
What is still unknown
This is observational work at a single waterhole. A call that precedes leaving is not evidence that each individual agreed, and the recordings cannot say whether a given rumble carries assent, direction or simply excitement.
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