African elephants use their unique sense of smell to communicate, distinguish their mates and outsiders, and maintain social cohesion.
These are the findings of a group of researchers from the University of Queensland, who found that smell was used to distinguish characteristics including age, health, reproductive status, location, identity, social status and family relationships between elephants.
Female elephants, in particular, can also use scent for mediation of female competition, cooperation and to facilitate maternal behaviour. They can also monitor the location of up to 30 conspecifics from odour profiles in urine.
The study tested the DNS, glands, urine and manure of 113 elephants in Malawi and Africa to identify family groupings….