Acoustic is a sound signals which they travel in all directions.

Acoustic signals are useful for giving information about an immediate situation.

Elephants are specialists in the production of low frequency sound and in the use of long-distance communication.

Because low-frequency sound attenuates very little with distance, elephants powerful infrasonic calls enable them to stay in contact as they move separately over large areas of savannah or forest.

Types of Freqeuncy

Example of calls

High Frequency

 Trumpets  Snorts  Barks  Roars  Cries

Low Frequency

 Chirps  Rumbles

A typical human male's voice in speech fluctuates around 110 Hertz (Hz, or cycles per second), a female's voice around 220 Hz and a child's around 300 Hz.

Among elephants, a typical male rumble fluctuates around an average minimum of 12 Hz (more than 3 octaves below a man's voice), a female's rumble around 13 Hz and a calf's around 22 Hz.

a single elephant call may start with a rumble at 27 Hz and grading into a roar at 470 Hz!

Elephants can produce very gentle, soft sounds as well as extremely powerful sounds.

Sound is produced as air expelled from the lungs is passed over the vocal chords or larynx(7.5cm). The moving air causes the vocal chords to vibrate at a particular frequency depending upon the type of sound the elephant is making. By lengthening or shortening the vocal chords an elephant can produce a wide range of frequencies.

The column of air vibrates in the elephant's extended vocal tract or resonating chamber is depending on how the elephant holds the components of this chamber (trunk, mouth, tongue, pharyngeal pouch, larynx).

Thus, it is able to modify and different components of the sound.

amplify

If hold elephants head in a certain posture and by flapping its ears in a particular rhythm and angle, this can affect the musculature around the larynx, thus modifying a particular call to achieve the desired sound.

 Has a large body just as in musical instruments, the longer and looser the vibrating string (or vocal chords) and the larger the resonating chamber, the lower the frequency produced. The structures of the hyoid apparatus and the musculature that support the tongue and the larynx had created a loose arrangement allows for a greater movement and flexibility of the larynx which facilitate the production and resonance of low frequency sound.

The larger the space between an animal's ears (the inter-aural distance) the better the ability at localizing sound because the difference in the time and intensity of a sound reaching each ear can be used as cues in localizing sound. Elephants extend their ears perpendicularly to their heads in order to better localize sounds.

(1) Elephant Listening Project began at the Portland Zoo in 1984. (2) Focus of the research: Characterizing low frequency communication in savannah elephants. Characterizing low frequency communication in forest elephants in rainforest of central Afirca Conservation of forest elephants in Central Africa.

Infants and calves < 5 years may emit a cry or cry-rumble when they are in some form of distress such as when denied access to the breast or when protesting unwanted contact by an older elephant.

Cries are very short whimpering sounds lasting less than half a second in duration. Cries are typically followed by a rumble without an inhalation, and rarely a cry may be both preceded and followed by a rumble.

Produced by several different individuals and associated with the sucking of water or odors into the mouth. In Amboseli, only 2 in a population of 1500 elephants emit this unusual sound. Example: Gail and Gwen, are adult females from the same family. For many years only Gail was heard to croak, but then Gwen began croaking. Gwen and Gail are sisters and close associates. Thus, researcher suggest that the croak is another example of vocal learning.

Besides, both Amboseli elephants appear to croak when they are relaxed and feeding however croaking appears to have no communicative function.

Spectrograms of elephant vocalizations ( Croaking) 579-633HZ

Bark
Barks are transient and primarily noisy calls that differ from noisy roars in their very short duration. Similar to the roars, barks may be combined with a rumble producing a composite bark-rumble. In Amboseli barks and bark-rumbles were heard very infrequently, but occurred in contexts similar to roars by calves: in the context of begging and when elephants were tusked or pushed.

Rev
The rev was described in 2003 by Leong and her colleagues as a short tonal harmonic vocalization, less than a second in duration, and almost always followed immediately by a rumble. The structure of the rev is similar to a short rumble, but at between 50 and 90 Hz its fundamental frequency is significantly higher than any known rumble. The revs recorded in captivity by Leong are buzzing or revving sounds.

Rev from 1-1.5 s then rumble (127-282 hz)

grunt
The grunt was described in 2007 by Stoeger-Horwath: as a soft, short, beeping or honking sound produced by infant elephants in the first days of life. She reports that in captivity infants cease producing grunts by two months of age. Grunts are barely audible and, therefore, difficult to hear and record in the wild. Some are associated with attempts to suckle.

SNORT
Short, noisy, broadband sounds produced by blowing air purposefully through the trunk. Why do elephants snort?
Surprised by something Intense social excitement To alert other members of their group to a new situation.

 Audibly distinguishable from the more common "blows" (blowing, sneezing, wheezing and coughing sounds). Sound sharper and more purposeful than a blow.

Spectrogram of Elephant Snorting

RUMBLES
Most frequently heard call type across both sexes and all ages. Easily distinguished by their very low frequencies and clear harmonic structure. Originate in the larynx (source) and resonate (filter) through the pharyngeal pouch, the nasal passages of the skull and through the trunk.

Can be produced with the mouth open or apparently closed. Open-mouthed calling is associated with the louder, more modulated rumbles. Highly variable, graded calls containing fundamental frequencies ranging between 8 and 34 Hz.

 Depends upon the callers age, size and excitement level, as well as the call context-type. Over 90% of the calls in our database are rumbles. Range in duration from less than half a second to almost 12 seconds. The rumbles of older individuals are longer in duration and lower in frequency than those of younger individuals.

Spectrogram of Rumble Greeting

Trumpet

Produced by a forceful expulsion of air through the trunk and come in several forms. 4055879 Hz with a mean duration of about 1 s. Trumpets are mainly tonal sounds, though harmonics are overlaid with noise. Most last less than a second (though extremely long trumpets may last over 3 seconds).

 Elephants tend to trumpet when they are

highly stimulated - in situations where they may be fearful, surprised, aggressive, playful or socially excited.

Trumpeting is often associated with

intensely social events such as a birth, mating or greeting ceremony, where group participation is important.

Function as a kind of "exclamation mark",

expressing the very high level of excitement and importance of the event.

Squelching
This low-frequency sound is apparently produced

by forcing air through a "scrunched-up" trunk. Sometimes the individual squelching gives the impression of having a genuine itch in his or her trunk, but at other times production of this rather odd bubbling sound seems to be an end in itself.
Squelching is most often heard when elephants are

relaxed, for example standing by the side of a waterhole, or waiting patiently for other family members to move

Truck-like
In an article entitled, Elephants are capable of vocal learning, published in the journal, Nature, in 2005, Poole and her colleagues (researchers) reported the imitations of truck sounds by a ten-year-old adolescent female African elephant, Malaika, who was living in a semi-captive group of orphaned elephants in Tsavo, Kenya.

 With a fundamental frequency hovering around 50 Hz (similar to trucks) and highly variable duration (range: 685 ms to almost 15 seconds) this sound is unlike any call in the normal repertoire of African elephants. Poole and her colleagues were able to show statistically that the elephant was imitating the noise of distant trucks. Since the publication of the 2005 paper additional elephants in the small Tsavo group of orphans learned to produce the same sound.