People greet each other in a variety of ways. They might say "hello," "guten tag," "hola," "konnichiwa" or "g'day." They might shake hands, bump fists, make a fist-and-palm gesture or press their hands together with a gentle head bow. They might kiss on the cheek or hand. And they might give a nice big hug.
For elephants, greetings appear to be a similarly complex affair. A study based on observations of African savannah elephants in the Jafuta Reserve in Zimbabwe provides new insight into the visual, acoustic and tactile gestures they employ in greetings, including how greetings differ depending on factors such as their sex and whether they are looking at each other.
"Elephants live in a so-called 'fission-fusion' society, where they often separate and reunite, meeting after hours, days or months apart," said cognitive and behavioural biologist Vesta Eleuteri of the University of Vienna in Austria, lead author of the study published this month in the journal Communications Biology.
