Elephant seals know when their opponents are talking smack

article gizmodo.com

Yelling at each other online is a beloved human tradition. Other animals like to shout at each other too, they just don’t have the luxury of a screen separating them. But of all the petty creatures in the animal kingdom, it turns out elephant seals might be most like humans when it comes to talking s***.

First sorry about the title, it's not mine and I asterisked it purposely, as well as the quote.

I just think it's kind of funny how we are still learning things about animals we have known, classified, quantified and qualified. I feel that communication is one of the few things that shows intelligence, consequently communication in it's various mammalian forms can teach us more about how we communicate or how we should.

In general, elephant seal calls sound like a broken car. But while they might not be the most elegant musicians, elephant seals need to understand each others’ calls so that they don’t die.

Interesting to me is that it is the rhythm and not just timbre of the call. Difference and nuance can be found everywhere if we open our ears. Perhaps it's the very same in human language...do the more "alpha" males have a distinct rhythm or cadence to their speech? Or is it just the timbre of their voice which we hear?

I know I'm stretching a bit from the actual subject, but articles like this make me think further and deeper to how the findings might actually benefit me directly or indirectly.

What say you?

Can you imagine all of the people commenting here today being in the same room face to face having those discussions? I for one am very glad our discourse is mostly anonymous, behind glass screens. The blood tends to stay inside our bodies this way.

Interesting about the alpha. I had thought it was always about the physical shell they possess. Even in human terms, if you are blessed with physical symmetry and the desirable traits, confidence will soon follow. Those physical traits and the confidence it inspires are the 'aura' of attractiveness. I think people can also attain that type of mindset latter in life when they simply stop giving a #*&$ what others think of them.

originally posted by: ClovenSky
Interesting about the alpha. I had thought it was always about the physical shell they possess. Even in human terms, if you are blessed with physical symmetry and the desirable traits, confidence will soon follow. Those physical traits and the confidence it inspires are the 'aura' of attractiveness. I think people can also attain that type of mindset latter in life when they simply stop giving a #*&$ what others think of them.

I think the article was referring only to the calls...not that the alpha doesn't have the physical "shell" but that even when they cannot see who is calling, they can identify the alpha based upon the rhythm of his call. (And if you've ever seen those seal colonies, they can be loud and splayed over a large rocky area where line of sight isn't always available.

Probably the larger elephant seal will have a larger lung cavity, deeper resonance. But a healthier seal could also take deeper breaths and make a louder sound.