An African elephant can recognize dozens of family members by the smell of urine and uses its powerful nose to keep track of their whereabouts , according to a study published last week.
A keen trunk coupled with a good memory is essential for elephants, which travel in ever-shifting groups ranging from a handful to several hundred individuals, the study says.
Scientists from Britain and Kenya tested the ability of elephants in Kenya's Amboseli National Park to tell family members from strangers.
The team, led by Richard Byrne of the University of Saint Andrews in Scotland, also thought up experiments to see whether the animals knew where family members were at any given moment.
In March 2007, they placed individual samples of female urine mixed with earth along the paths of 36 elephant family groups and then measured the reactions.
Only female urine samples were used because the social structure of the African elephant is matrilineal .
The first female in a group showed very little interest if the urine sample was from an elephant outside its group, but stopped to reach with its trunk if the odor came from a familiar source.
African elephants are able to keep tabs on at least 17 females and as many as 30 individuals, both male and female, at any given time, the study says.
The lead elephant displayed especially heightened interest if the smell belonged to an elephant that was, at the moment the fresh urine sample was encountered, trailing behind with the family.
This expression of "surprise" at finding evidence that did not jibe with reality shows that the African elephant "can remember where some family members are in relation to itself," the researchers conclude.
The study appeared in Biology Letters, a publication of the British Royal Society. (AFP)
根據上週公佈的一項研究，非洲象可以藉由尿液氣味辨認出數十隻親族，並且利用敏銳的鼻子追蹤牠們親族的下落。
研究說，對這些數量從少數幾隻到幾百隻成群結隊遷徙的大象，敏銳的象鼻和絕佳的記憶很重要。
英國和肯亞的科學家在肯亞安伯賽利國家公園，測試大象辨識自己親族和陌生象隻的能力。由蘇格蘭聖安德魯大學研究員，理查．伯恩所領導的團隊，也設計了實驗來觀察是否這些大象在任何指定時刻，知道牠們家族成員在哪裡。
今年三月，他們將母象的尿液樣本和泥土混合，放置在三十六個大象家族經過的路線，並觀測牠們的反應。
只使用母象的尿液樣本，是因為非洲象的社會結構屬母系社會。
象群中帶頭的母象，對非出於自己團體中大象的尿液樣本，明顯地興趣缺缺，但是如果樣本是出自於自己家族成員的，該母象會停下來並用牠的象鼻碰觸。
研究指出，非洲象能夠在任何指定時間記錄至少十七隻母象的下落，最多到三十隻，不管是公的還是母的。
如果帶頭的大象發現氣味是屬於脫隊的大象成員的新尿液，會感到特別有興趣，
研究人員作出結論，非洲象在發現與事實不符的證據時，會顯現出「驚訝」的表情，這表示牠們能夠記住和牠有相關聯的家族成員的下落。
英國皇家學會刊物「生物學通訊」，刊登了這項研究報告。
（法新社／翻譯：楊鴻泰）
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