Elephant Seals Know When Their Opponents Are Talking Shit. Yelling at each other online is a beloved human tradition. Other animals like to shout at each other too, they just dont have the luxury of a screen separating them. But of all the petty creatures in the animal kingdom, it turns out elephant seals might be most like humans when it comes to talking shit. A new study published on July 2. Current Biology suggests that elephant seals are able to recognize the tone and rhythmic patterns of their rivals calls. Just as it is with people who squabble online, maintaining dominance is very important to elephant seals social order. A team of researchers spent weeks studying an elephant seal colony in Ao Nuevo State Park, California, where they were able to identify the alpha male and record his call. The team changed the rhythm and timbre of the call, and presented two modified versions back to the seal colony, in addition to the original. When the researchers played the original alpha male call to ten beta males, the non dominant seals scrambled away in fear. When they played their edited versions, however, the beta males were unafraid when the changes in the beat were more extreme. Autodesk 3Ds Max Design 2015 Trial Exam' title='Autodesk 3Ds Max Design 2015 Trial Exam' />Therefore, the researchers concluded that the beta seals understood that they were not hearing the alpha males call. This is the first natural example where on a daily basis, an animal uses the memory and the perception of rhythm to recognize other members of the population, co author Nicolas Mathevon of the Universit de LyonSaint Etienne in France said in a statement. Humans can do this too, of course. There have been experiments with other mammals showing that they can detect rhythm, but only with conditioning, Mathevon added. Dns-323 Windows Driver more. In general, elephant seal calls sound like a broken car. But while they might not be the most elegant musicians, elephant seals need to understand each others calls so that they dont die. It is possible that maybe the ability to perceive rhythm is actually very general in animals, Mathevon said. But its extremely important for elephant seals, to the point of survival. Autodesk 3Ds Max Design 2015 Trial Exam' title='Autodesk 3Ds Max Design 2015 Trial Exam' />Competing for females, the males fight very violently, even to the point of killing one another. So its very important for them to accurately recognize the voices, to be able to choose the right strategy, to know to avoid a fight with a dominant male, or even to start a fight with an inferior one. Of course, there are some limitations here. This study only analyzed one colonymaybe they were just some really socially conscious elephant seals. More research is needed to determine weather or not all elephant seals can understand pitch and the beat of other elephant seal speech. Anyway, while elephant seals arent the most eloquent species, Id still rather listen to their caterwauling over any Chainsmokers song. Current Biology. Lectures, tours and other programs and events for members and the general public. Yelling at each other online is a beloved human tradition. Other animals like to shout at each other too, they just dont have the luxury of a screen separating them.