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How the elephants really do make their trunk calls

An Irish-American scientist reveals how elephants use their feet and trunks to communicate.

By Christina Park
Sunday February 17 2008

Cailtin O'Connell

Oneworld, €22.20

ELEPHANTS can stand on tiptoe -- they can run on tiptoe and hardly make a sound. And they can use their sensitive feet to hear through the ground. You would think such behaviour would have drawn attention before but, as the writer Henry David Thoreau (quoted in this book) points out, "It's not what you look at that matters, it's what you see".

And Irish-American scientist Dr Caitlin O'Connell, author of The Elephant's Secret Sense, has a keen eye.

Employed in 1992 by the Namibian government to study elephant behaviour, with a view to keeping marauding animals away from farmers' crops, O'Connell soon noticed odd goings-on at a waterhole in Etosha National Park. Elephants would often freeze in tandem, face in one direction and lift one front foot to stand on tiptoe. This ritual always preceded the arrival of another animal or herd. It was as if, O'Connell thought, they were listening through their feet.

How the elephants really do make their trunk calls - Books, Entertainment - Independent.ie

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The Sound of the Aurora

By Richard Solensky on Perplexing

If you happen to be reasonably close to one of the Earth's magnetic poles, the next time there’s a particularly intense aurora, go outside. Get as far as you can from sources of noise – traffic, barking dogs, TVs – and listen. Listen carefully.

If conditions are right, you may hear some unusual noises. Earwitnesses have said the sound is like radio static, a small animal rustling through dry grass and leaves, or the crinkling of a cellophane wrapper. Inuit folklore says it's the sound of the spirits of the dead, either playing a game or trying to communicate with the living.

It’s the sound of the aurora itself. And the cause is currently unknown. Understanding the phenomenon is made more difficult by the fact that though there are many anecdotal reports, the sound has yet to be recorded.

Read the article on DamnInteresting.com »

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Amplifier House

BLDGBLOG: Amplifier House: Original Domestic Soundscapes

[Image: The Mix House, exterior view].

This awesome new project by Joel Sanders Architect, Karen Van Lengen/KVL, and Ben Rubin/Ear Studio takes a step beyond "the modernist notion of visual transparency" (i.e. large windows and glass houses) by adding "aural transparency" – acoustic openness.