Those big ears are not just there for show . Namibian elephant detect rainstorm at a aloofness of as much as 280 kilometer away , and will travel towards them in search of fresh water and the ontogenesis that comes after rain . Sound come out to be the most likely , although still unconfirmed , mechanism .
This is more than the distance from the center of New York to Baltimore , or London to Manchester - although in either case the stochasticity of industrial animation might confuse an immigrant elephant ’s senses .
Namibia ’s elephants were almost wipe out by poachers in the 1970s and 80s , but have started to recover since war in the region quit , allow the politics to provide some protective cover .
African elephants have adapted to a various range of clime , but the Namibian surround is a pains . The country is thedriest in sub - Saharan Africaso it is important to make the good use of what rains do get along . elephant in drier regions have been found to have the largest cooking stove , up to 14,000km2 , with thelongest journey during the wet season .
The Namibian rainy time of year , such as it is , runs from January to March and it has been noticed that during this period the local elephant can suddenly shift their direction of migration , with no apparent reason .
A team led by Emeritus Professor Michael Garstang of the University of Virginia placed GPS tracker on elephant from 14 herds between 2002 and 2009 . InPloS Onethey compare the movement of those whose collars worked continuously with satellite rain data and found the elephant were turning towards storms amazing distance away . Sometimes several widely scatter herds all began converging on a storm simultaneously .
The research worker let in they can not be certain how the elephant know where the rain is , but argue , “ Rain - system generate infrasound , which can move around such distances and be discover by elephant , is a possible gun trigger for such alteration in motion . ” Whether the phone would be from hell dust , or bone up on the ground , they ’re not indisputable .
Elephants use infrasound , frequencies too low to be audible to humans , tocommunicate over large distances , and study of their auditory modality and pressure waves from electrical storm paint a picture they should be able to pick up the noises at least100 km away . However , these left open whether the elephant can tell where the auditory sensation is derive from , even if they can identify that it is happening .
Puzzlingly , while the elephants sometimes changed direction to head towards rain the day it accrue , some took as much as 20 day to plot a new course . In other cases the elephants changed path 7 - 12 Clarence Shepard Day Jr. before the rain , as if they had some forewarning of where they should be heading , but seemed to foot the direction with uncanny accuracy .
Garstang has previously collected evidence that elephantsresponded to the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunamiwell before it struck .
