need to add title here

Secret Language of Elephants

January 3, 2010 5:30 PM

Researchers listening to elephant sounds and observing their behavior are compiling an elephant dictionary. Bob Simon goes to Central Africa to listen to the forest elephants first hand.

The Secret Language of Elephants
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by Elephachant January 26, 2012 7:34 PM EST
60 Minutes, you rock! Where can I send money to help with the cause of protecting elephants?
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by kngebhart November 29, 2011 10:18 AM EST
I think this research may also be helpful to prove that the way elephants are treated by zoo keepers or circus' is in fact distressing to the animals. It may give insight as to how the animals are feeling and communicating with one another and to determine how to keep them safe and safe from the harm of the circus, the bull hook, and other forms of abuse.
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by daisyhairdesign May 31, 2011 6:49 PM EDT
Correction: Get $15 credit at www.daisyhairdesign.com for EACH ticket stub you bring in from this film.

Share the message and maybe get free services. The more stubs, the better! My way of saying thanks for spreading the love for these endearing, majestic animals. Long live the elephant!
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by daisyhairdesign May 31, 2011 6:41 PM EDT
Delight in a 3D film and share the message-go see "Born To Be Wild", a film about the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust.

Then bring is all your collected ticket stubs and receive $15 in services at Daisy Hair Design in Malibu, California. www.daisyhairdesign.com (Hair color and precision cutter specialist.)

The more stubs, the merrier! Pass the message and maybe get free services!
My way of saying thanks to you.
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by ceebee-ess January 10, 2010 2:17 PM EST
I thought they were upset because they are considered the mascot for the republicans
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by maggiembbx3 January 9, 2010 10:15 AM EST
What a beautiful story on this most fascinating animal. Thank you, CBS, for bringing this story to us. Elephants are extremely intelligent animals and what really saddens me is that they continue to be used in circuses to "entertain" people - a lifetime of misery and abuse.
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by KBonadio January 7, 2010 12:42 AM EST
On behalf of all elephants, and those humans that work tirelessly to help make their lives better, I want to thank you Bob Simon for your educational and heart-warming reports on elephants. With your stories, you have been able to reach out to millions of people and help educate them on the incredible intelligence, social behavior, and empathy that these mannificent mammals posess. Between your reports, the work of Andrea, as well as my friend and world famous elephant scientist, Dr. Joyce Poole,PHD, (www.elephantvoices.org), I have become quite an "elephant specialist."
I look forward to your next elephant report, which I hope will focus on the sad truth of elephants forced into entertainment in the circus, and those that are living in confinement in inadequate zoos across America and around the world. These elephants so desperately need your voice!
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by pwrege January 6, 2010 10:02 AM EST
One viewer below commented that our research into the elephant language as part of an effort to help with their conservation was disingenuous. To this I reply:

It should not be surprising that a 15 minute news program can only brush the surface of the understanding of elephants that Andrea has gained over twenty years of effort at Dzanga, and can not mention all of the facets of research that contribute to the conservation goals of the researchers at Cornell (not Stanford).

Decoding the 'language' of elephants, and characterizing the complexity of their communication system, is of long-term scientific interest, and was presumably part of the focus in this piece because it is engaging and fascinating. However, the Elephant Listening Project is currently strongly focused on some very real efforts to apply what Andrea has learned to further the conservation of forest elephants.

There are thousands of forest clearings scattered across the Congo Basin, critical for other populations of forest elephants, that have no observer like Andrea and never will have. We don't know which of these are particularly critical for elephants, nor how much poaching pressure is occurring near them. Right at this moment there are 12 acoustic recorders at forest clearings in Gabon and Republic of Congo that are being used to estimate how many elephants use these locations, when, and by recording not only elephant vocalizations but also the sound of gunshots, how much poaching pressure they face. This is being used to focus limited protection resources where that protection can do the most good.

Andrea's presence at Dzanga is directly helping to reduce the killing there - but this is only part of one population of forest elephants in Central Africa. One point of the CBS program was that her knowledge is being used by ELP in diverse ways to directly assist conservation and also to increase our understanding of the social system and ecology of an amazing creature. One strategy alone will not keep these animals on our planet. - phw
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by DarleneCBerry January 5, 2010 10:22 PM EST
I am anxious to show this video to the eighth-graders I teach in conjunction with Lois Lowry's Newberry Award winning book The Giver. In a seemingly Utopian society of the future, a young boy, Jonas, receives an ancient memory of a powerful elephant trumpeting. Later, he also experiences the traumatic slaughter and subsequent mourning of the elephant's mate. Since his society's only idea of an elephant is a child's stuffed toy, Jonas tries to transmit the beauty of the trumpeting animal to his unknowing sister who shrugs him off with a whine, "Jonas, you're hurting me!" Often, what we don't know, hurts us, and many of us would rather NOT know about the tragedy of this and many other endangered animals. I believe knowledge can be powerful, and this video is an excellent opportunity to educate young people, to inspire them to make a difference in the future of our environment. Thank you! The timing couldn't have been better.
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by lyndabyrd28 January 5, 2010 6:58 PM EST
In my previous comment, I meant to say, when cheetahs became endangered.
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