Episode 320: More Elephants
b"Thanks to Connor and Pranav who suggested this week's episode about elephants! It's been too long since we had an elephant episode and there's lots more to learn.\\n\\nFurther reading:\\n\\nAsian elephants could be the maths kings of the jungle\\n\\nMany wild animals 'count'\\n\\nA big difference between Asian and African elephants is diet\\n\\nStudy reveals ancient link between mammoth dung and pumpkin pie\\n\\nThe Asian elephant (left) and the African elephant (right):\\n\\n\\n\\nThe African bush elephant (left) and the African forest elephant (right) [photo taken from this page]:\\n\\n\\n\\nThe osage orange is not an orange and nothing wants to eat it these days:\\n\\n\\n\\nShow transcript:\\nWelcome to Strange Animals Podcast. I\\u2019m your host, Kate Shaw.\\nWe haven\\u2019t talked about elephants since episode 200! It\\u2019s definitely time for some elephant updates, so thanks to Conner and Pranav for their suggestions!\\nConner suggested we learn more about the Asian elephant, which was one we talked about way back in episode 200. The biggest Asian elephant ever reliably measured was a male who stood 11.3 feet tall, or 3.43 meters, although on average a male Asian elephant, also called a bull, stands about 9 feet tall, or 2.75 meters. Females, called cows, are smaller. For comparison, the official height of a basketball hoop is 10 feet, or 3 meters. An elephant could dunk the ball every single time, no problem.\\nThe Asian elephant used to live throughout southern Asia but these days it\\u2019s endangered and its range is reduced to fragmented populations in southeast Asia. There are four living subspecies recognized today although there used to be more in ancient times.\\nElephants are popular in zoos, but the sad fact is that zoo elephants often don\\u2019t live as long as wild elephants, even with the best care. The elephant is adapted to roam enormous areas in a family group, which isn\\u2019t possible in captivity. In the wild, though, the elephant is increasingly endangered due to habitat loss and poaching. Even though the Asian elephant is a protected species, people kill elephants because their tusks are valuable as ivory. Tusks are a modified form of really big tooth, and it\\u2019s valuable to some people because it can be carved into intricate pieces of art that can sell for a lot of money. That\\u2019s it. That\\u2019s the main reason why we may not have any elephants left in another hundred years at this rate, because rich people want carvings made in a dead animal\\u2019s tooth. People are weird, and not always the good kind of weird.\\nIn happier Asian elephant news, though, a 2018 study conducted in Japan using zoo elephants replicated the results of previous studies that show Asian elephants have numeric competence that\\u2019s surprisingly similar to that in humans. That means they understand numbers at least up to ten, and can determine which group of items has more or less items than another group. That sounds simple because humans are really good at this, but most animals can only understand numbers up to three. It goes one, two, three, lots.\\nMany animals do have a good idea of numbers in a general way even if they can\\u2019t specifically count. Gray wolves, for instance, know how many wolves need to join the hunt to successfully bring down different prey animals. Even the humble frog will choose the larger group of food items when two groups are available. But the Asian elephant seems to have an actual grasp of numbers. I specify the Asian elephant because studies with African elephants haven\\u2019t found the same numeric ability.\\nElephants make a lot of sounds, such as the iconic trumpeting that they make using the trunk. Way back in episode 8 we talked about the infrasonic sounds elephants also make with their vocal folds, sounds that are too low for humans to hear. But the Asian elephant also sometimes makes a high-pitched squeaking sound and until recently, no one was sure how it was produced. It turns out that the elephant makes this sound by buzzing its lips the same way a human does when ..."