ElephantVoices

10/15/2026

A heartbreaking image — and a population in peril.

Federico Veronesi's extraordinary photograph of a desert elephant carrying a stillborn calf in Namibia has won the prestigious Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2026 award. The image is a powerful reminder of elephants' deep emotional lives and their capacity for grief and suffering.

ElephantVoices' Joyce Poole was interviewed by BBC Future about this remarkable behaviour and the desperate situation facing Namibia's desert-adapted elephants.

These elephants are experiencing alarmingly high calf mortality. Their small, increasingly vulnerable population is threatened by trophy hunting, human-elephant conflict and other forms of human exploitation, compounded by environmental stress. Could inbreeding also be contributing to the high number of infant mortality? This possibility urgently needs investigation.

These elephants are not only losing their calves. They are at risk of disappearing altogether. We must protect both their future and the lives and wellbeing of each individual.

Read the BBC article: https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20261013-the-rare-behaviour-showing-elephant-grief

Photo: Federico Veronesi / Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2026

10/07/2026

Another article about our recent publication!

Choruses of African elephant rumbles appear to become more similar in certain situations, including reuniting or coordinating what to do next, according to a paper in Scientific Reports. The research provides evidence that elephant rumble choruses function as group signals.

Link to the research in the comments.

10/06/2026

Read about our latest research in this article in Science!

10/04/2026

Read about our new research in the New Scientist.

Elephants appear to harmonise their vocal rumbles when they join together to form choruses, tuning their voices to sound more alike as the chorus unfolds.

The findings come from a machine learning study, which also reveals that this convergence is particularly likely to occur during specific kinds of choruses – such as when elephants reconnect with one another or organise group activities – and that the calls themselves may contain information about what the animals are doing.

The findings could offer new insights into how elephants communicate and navigate life within their complex societies, says Sara Keen at Earth Species Project, a US non-profit organisation that uses artificial intelligence and machine learning to attempt to decode non-human animal communication.

Read more: https://www.newscientist.com/article/2591745-elephants-imitate-each-other-when-they-produce-deep-rumbling-sounds/

Image: ElephantVoices

African savannah elephants use a variety of calls to communicate, and now machine learning has shown that they tune their deepest sounds to match those of other nearby elephants

10/03/2026

Read about our latest research!

10/01/2026

New Study: Machine Learning Reveals That Elephant Choruses Encode Behavior and Show Vocal Convergence. 🐘

When elephants rumble together, their overlapping voices are far from a jumble of sound. Our new study of the Amboseli elephants suggests that these choruses retain information about the social situation—and that, during some exchanges, individual voices become more acoustically similar. The findings offer a new window into how elephants communicate and coordinate their lives.

The study, published in Scientific Reports, was the result of collaboration with Earth Species Project and Amboseli Trust for Elephants in which for we used machine learning to analyze elephant choruses.

📄 Read our blog post: https://www.elephantvoices.org/news-and-views/new-study-machine-learning-reveals-that-elephant-choruses-encode-behavior-and-show-vocal

📄 Read the study: www.nature.com/articles/s41598-026-68525-3

09/24/2026

Using AI to ‘talk to animals’ might make us feel clever - but what, if anything, does it do for them?

As ethologists increasingly use AI in their research, they grapple with how to wield the technology responsibly. Drs. Joyce Poole and Mickey Pardo speak to Amy Martin of The Guardian in this thought provoking article which you can find on ElephantVoices.org under In the Media

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/ng-interactive/2026/sep/22/animal-language-recordings-ai

As animal behaviorists increasingly use AI in their research, they grapple with how to wield the technology responsibly

09/24/2026

Long ago Maasai friends told me that they observed elephants feeding on the same plants that they used as medicines. They, too, believed that elephants used these plants medically. Joyce

African elephants use dozens of different medicinal plants to treat themselves and their families when they are sick, research reveals.

09/12/2026

Visual communication is a central component of how African elephants convey intention, emotion, and social status. While dramatic displays such as a “charge,” ear-spreading, or trunk-tossing are widely recognized, elephants rely just as much on subtle shifts in posture, ear position, head carriage, and foot and tail movement to signal meaning. From conspicuous dominance displays to nearly imperceptible ear adjustments, elephants use their entire bodies to communicate. To perceive these signals elephants have a specialized visual system: they see best in certain directions, are adapted for low-light conditions, and their vision is closely linked to using their trunk effectively. While not as sharp as human vision, it’s well-suited to their lifestyle and social interactions.
To learn more about elephant visual communication and use The Elephant Ethogram visit our website, elephantvoices.org