LONDON (Reuters) - Elephants can literally smell danger, according to a study on Thursday that shows the animals can sniff out whether humans are friends or foes.



The study in Kenya found elephants detected both the scents and colors of garments worn by Masai tribesman who often come into conflict with the animals when herding cattle.

When detecting the scent of a Masai, the elephants turned up their trunks to orient themselves to the smell and then stampeded away until they reached cover in the tall grass.

"The degree with which the elephants are able to classify people hasn't been shown before in any animal," said Lucy Bates, a cognitive psychologist at the University of St. Andrews, who worked on the study published in Current Biology.

Working with the Amboseli Elephant Research Project in southern Kenya, the researchers presented the animals with clean clothing and material worn by either a Masai or Kamba tribesman.

They did not stampede when sniffing either clean clothes or those worn by Kamba tribesmen, farmers who pose little threat to the animals, Bates said.

"The reactions between the Masai and the Kamba were so different," Bates said in a telephone interview. "They weren't reacting as if it was the same predator."

To test their reactions further, the researchers presented the elephants with red material, the same color as the Masai's traditional costume, and plain white clothing.

When the animals spied red, they stamped their feet and shook their heads in an aggressive manner while the color white failed to spark such aggressive behavior, Bates said.

"The reaction with the Masai clothes was very intense," Bates said.

The findings could boost conservation efforts in Kenya focused on keeping people and pachyderms apart, Bates said.

The researchers suspect elephants across Africa are just as perceptive. "Elephants would likely have the same ability to make these discriminations across Africa but it would be for different groups," Bates said.

Elephant hunters have noted the fact of elephant's differentiation of scents since time began. Some would smear themselves with elephant dung when hunting jumbos but not when hunting other game or if just travelling across country. Many are the stories recounted in hunting books of the past century, of local natives being treated with disdain by elephants but those same animals taking off for the distant horizon when a European hunter was scented. I have observed this behaviour many times - elephants showing absolutely no fear of tribespeople would go like hell the moment they got my scent. They knew they were in danger from one type of human and not from the other.

There are very interesting cases of trained African elephants using scent to identify individual humans from pieces of clothing or just the person's scent left on the ground, even half a day after the human passed by. This phenomenal sense of smell coupled with the elephant's intelligence is just one facet of these amazing animals' abilities.

Richard Harland.

Author of: The Hunting Imperative; African Epic; Ndlovu - The Art of Hunting the African Elephant. (Available from Rowland Ward Publications and Safari Press)

Richard

What was that project you described in your book - the one where the elephant actually tracked a thief right to his front door?

As for your comment:

quote:

elephants showing absolutely no fear of tribespeople would go like hell the moment they got my scent.

I will withhold comments on any possible alternative conclusions that crossed my mind.

Here's the link. I posted before I read recent posts. Thought it was more about sighting color. Scenting has always been the common thread in whatever little I've managed to glean from my study of ele hunting. the day will come tho.


http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/edinburgh_and_east/7046746.stm

If I am danger, then they can smell it. And run, too.

I was hoping Richard would post about this. Thanks.

Now the same website has an article stating that elephants do not like hills.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/5222616.stm

I understand what they're saying but I saw elephants all up and down the escarpment in Makuti this year. We saw elephants way up on ridges that I wouldn't want to climb. We could see them skylined miles away...and we saw a lot of that in Makuti. They seemed to love the hills there.

The article's research was in Kenya which I know next to nothing about. Perhaps it is different there. Thoughts on that?

quote:

Originally posted by Harland:
would go like hell the moment they got my scent.

That's because they know Baas Richard and don't want anything to do with him.

Jim,

The trained elephant, with his handler on top, picked up the burglar's scent about 12 hours after he had left the farm house. The jumbo followed him across the countryside, through a flowing river about 50 yards wide, back through the same river further downstream, then through a field of paprika which had just been sprayed with insecticide. The thief then went to his house, one of dozens in the compound, the whole area by then being saturated by the scent of scores of other humans. The elephant walked straight through the village to the guilty party's hut. When the police broke open the door, there were the man's wet shoes and the stolen goods.

As for elephants distinguishing my scent from local tribesmen, that's the easy part. The interesting question is, why should it signal danger? Maybe I had pursued that particular herd on a previous hunt; maybe I had shot elephants in that area and other groups picked up my scent later when they passed by the vicinity of the shooting. Not really sure about this.

Another of Rory Hensman's elephants had this party trick: Take ten people and have each one put a shoe, hat or similar item in a pile on the ground then go and stand in a line a hundred yards away. The elephant is then given one item from the pile and told to give it to the owner. The jumbo walks straight to that person with the thing held in its trunk, without going along the line of people to find the correct one. Just directly to the owner. Was this to do with the colour or the smell of the item? I would think definitely the scent.

Bryan,

That is strange about elephant not liking hills. I'll look at that site you mention. As you saw for yourself, the Zim elephants LOVE the hills!

Richard.

Author of: The Hunting Imperative; African Epic; Ndlovu - The Art of Hunting the African Elephant. (Available from Rowland Ward Publications and Safari Press)

Richard,

Some very good tricks with the ele's. And since we have so many of them around why don't we train them as sniffer dogs at airports and road blocks.

Surely people would realise that they are in Africa when they arrive then.

Richard

Many thanks! I find that program to be one of the most fascinating things I have read in a very long time.

The Hensman's are going a long way to dispel a lot of myth and urban legends about African elephants.

I recall the part in your book that was explained a little further on their site about African elephants being untrainable. Their approach is not to take them from infancy but to let them "learn to be elephants" before trying to approach them to to learn things that would be useful to humans.

The information in your book on this topic is, by far, the most detailed account of what the Hensmans are doing. I find that to be unfortunate - not because of what you wrote, but because there is not more detailed information available. Even on their website, the information is rather sparse.

Based on the research and programs, there appears to be virtually limitless possibilities for turning African elephants into one heck of a resource for the Continent. As long as we realize that they are still dangerous wild animals, and that the necessity would arise to sort things out from time to time, the field appears to be wide open.

I for one would love to see them used here in the States for tracking criminals. Talk about a deterrent!

Jim

Further to richards post ..i have on many occasions arrived at night to a field with crop raining elephants in it , villagers energetically banging pots , hitting drums and lighting fires ...the first few times I saw this and, presuming the elephants were oblivious to all the human activity as the peacefully munched on corn and watermelons , I was not careful with the wind and as soon as the scented us , trunks went up , they stopped feeding and immediately left the field .. Subsequently I have taken far more care in this scenario ...interesting that they ignore the locals in spite of the deliberate noise and commortion yet scent hunters from so far and associate them with danger ..

I often wonder are they smelling "danger" or are they smelling something unfamiliar.

likewise in areas like the omay where there are a lot of people , elephants often rest duriung the day in relatively small patches of bush between villages , again completely peaceful and ignoring the nearby locals..as soon as our scent was detected they were off, often between the villages ... again definite recognition of the different scents.

Those are some amazing stories. I wish some of the researchers would include the experiences of guys like Richard, Ivan, Buzz, Johan, etc.

What I would really like is some of you guys getting your stories down on audio cd. How about it?

Hi there, thanks for the posts guys, reminded me of a documentary that I saw too of Saba Douglas-Hamilton, daughter of Ian Douglas Hamilton I believe (spelling ?). The elephant was the blood-hound and had the task of tracking her down after smelling a piece of clothing and with Saba having a generous head-start, even involving crossing a river and brushing away tracks, etc! In the end, the elephant found her no problem, even though she did her best to escape and hide from the beast.

Any animal can smell fear, the human body emites sweat that equates to fear, also dumps a load in the shorts to varify it!

I have seen it in horses, dogs, and even domestic cats. I have no data on this, don't need it, I know it.