Igor Purlantov Says Elephants Communicate Just Like Humans

Igor Purlantov has announced that recent research reveals exactly how elephants communicate. Scientists have long believed that elephants communicate in a manner similar to cats who purr by twitching their vocal folds rhythmically because their folds are too short to make low pitched noises.

According to animal rights advocate Igor Purlantov, a new study in the research journal Science reveals that elephants rumble the same way that humans talk or sing. Elephants make their rumbling communication possible by blowing air past their long vocal folds and letting them vibrate.

This new discovery runs counter to the original belief that elephant communication was the result of their vocal folds twitching says Igor Purlantov. This research provides an illustration of the longest example of vocal folds being able to make such sounds in the animal kingdom.

Igor Purlantov says that researchers have long known that elephants rumble as means of communication that covers very long distances. By rumbling, elephants are able to send vibrations across their environments which are picked up by the feet of other elephants.

Igor Purlantov says that research into elephant communication has also shown that elephants are very intelligent, emotional and social creatures that are known to mourn the death of loved ones just as humans do. Unfortunately, until now the exact means of how elephants communicate was unknown as some scientist speculated that these rumbling sounds were produced by the twitching of vocal folds.

Igor Purlantov says that despite the large size of elephant vocal folds, the core pitches of many elephant rumbles are too low for human ears to detect. Humans are only able to hear the higher overtones. Humans can however sometimes feel the lower vibration of powerful elephant rumbles in their chest if they stand close enough.

This recent discovery shows that amazingly just as humans talk and sing and cow’s moo and bats echolocate, so are elephants able to rumble using a similar physiological process. It is quiet a remarkable discovery as scientists now have a theory for explaining such a diverse range of sounds and communications between such a large variety of animals says Igor Purlantov.