Beth, what sent you looking for elephants seismology in the first place?īETH MORTIMER: So I’m interested in animals that use vibrations through materials for information. TARJE NISSEN-MEYER: Thanks very much, also for me. IRA FLATOW: And Tarje Nissen-Meyer is associate professor of geophysics, also at the University of Oxford. Welcome, Beth.īETH MORTIMER: Hi, thanks for having me on the show. Here to talk with me about that is Beth Mortimer, research fellow in the Department of Zoology at the University of Oxford in UK. And new research in the journal Current Biology this week reports that earthquake monitoring tools are capable not just of detecting elephants from distances up to 6 kilometers away, but also distinguishing what kind of behavior is being heard, whether the elephant is walking quickly or even just roaring.Īnd the researchers speculate, perhaps this information could help us monitor elephants at risk of poaching among other conservation efforts.
So it might not surprise you to learn that we can listen to them in the shaking of the ground. Really cool, huh? That African elephant is the largest land animal still alive today, and more importantly for this story, they are the heaviest. It is the seismic sound of an elephant walking. Yeah, it does sound like a heartbeat, but it is not. But first, I want you to listen to a sound and guess what it is. Later in the hour, we’re going to talk about the growing E coli outbreak in Romaine lettuce, and how farm food safety tests could use a bit of an update. Credit: from the journal Current Biology/CC-BY 2018 A rumble from a bull (A, B, C) versus each footfall in a fast walk (D, E, F) differs in recorded vertical ground velocity versus time (A, D), determined source function force versus time (B, E) and modelled propagation sampled at 200 m and 1000 m from the source (modelled with high noise on sandy terrain C, F). The frequency (y axis) over time (x axis) where the color represents how loud each frequency is (blue = low through to red = high). Bull elephant source rumbles at 200 meters, under high noise and a sandy terrain environment.
#Elephant stomp full
But research in the journal Current Biology finds that the signals from an elephant’s walk are capable of traveling as far as three kilometers, while a roaring bull, or male elephant, might be detectable a full six kilometers away with just seismological monitoring tools.īiologist Beth Mortimer and seismologist Tarje Nissen-Meyer, both at the University of Oxford and co-authors of the new research, describe the signals they captured in the ground and explain how a network of seismological sensors might help us study elephants from a distance, and even protect endangered elephants from poaching.Ī series of elephants walking past a geophone. Their activities-walking, playing, even bellowing-might shake the ground beneath them. An adult African elephant, the largest land animal on Earth, can weigh as much as two tons.
0 kommentar(er)
