Welcome to ElephantVoices

Visit The Elephant Ethogram - with over 3000 video clips, sounds and photos
Join ElephantVoices on a Day in Amboseli
Join 345,000 elephant friends on ElephantVoices on Facebook!
Learn more about why elephants are extraordinary
Watch why we should #behavemoreelephants
Help us make a difference for elephants - click on image to Donate Now!
Learn about the intricacies of the social life of elephants
Meet Dr. Joyce Poole, Co-Founder of ElephantVoices
How do elephants communicate? Sight, sound, scent, touch and vibration…
Visit the fascinating elephants in Gorongosa, Mozambique
Learn how to sex and identify African elephants
Meet Petter Granli, Co-Founder of ElephantVoices
Elephant needing your help? Find sound arguments in "Statements & Testimonies"

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Happy Jamhuri Day to all our Kenyan followers, colleagues, supporters, and friends! 🇰🇪 Today we celebrate Kenya’s spirit, resilience, and unity. Hongera! This photograph, taken in 2019 in Amboseli, shows Craig (left), Tim (right, prior to his death), and a younger male standing in front of Mount Kilimanjaro. For us, it reflects the strength, grace, and timeless beauty that define Kenya. Elephant ID: @amboseli_trust #JamhuriDay #JamhuriDay2025

Today we mourn the loss of our dear friend and colleague, Iain Douglas-Hamilton. Few people have shaped elephant conservation as profoundly as Iain. He brought science, courage, and a fierce moral clarity to every aspect of his work. He listened to elephants as individuals, fought for them as a species, and inspired countless people to dedicate their lives to their protection. I first met Iain and his family in 1975, and we have remained friends ever since. I worked especially closely with him during the long and painful campaign leading up to the 1989 ivory trade ban. His unwavering determination carried us through those terrible years and our successes since remind us, time and again, why the struggle mattered. Our two organizations, @elephantvoices and @savetheelephants, have always shared a deep love and respect for elephants, along with a steadfast commitment to securing their future. Your legacy lives on, Iain - in your children, your grandchildren, and, most of all, in the elephants whose lives and futures you transformed. Thank you for everything - for your friendship, your wisdom, your belief, and for being a lifelong defender of elephants. Safari njema, Joyce and the ElephantVoices Team 🖤

ElephantVoices has contributed numerous affidavits and statements on behalf of elephants with the aim of improving the well being of the elephants in question. Our efforts have been on behalf of both wild and captive elephants, to support a release back to the wild or to sanctuary, to stop capture and export of elephants from the wild to a life in captivity, to ban the ivory trade or to stop trophy hunting. ElephantVoices' Dr. Joyce Poole is an expert witness for the @nonhuman.rights.project's endeavour to apply for a writ of habaes corpus for elephants and is part of a group imagining how the perspective of elephants might incorporated in the issues affecting their lives. Dr. Poole was among a group of scientists, and legal and constitutional scholars convened by the Berggruen Institute for the Multi-Species Constitution Project in an effort to explore possible language and structure for a multi-species constitution. Our advocacy efforts will continue with science as the foundation. Read about the case for non-human rights for elephants in this article in @theatlantic from 16 November 2021 (link in bio) #elephantvoices #nonhumanrightsproject #elephants #happytheelephant

The bond between a mother elephant and her daughter represents a lifelong social and emotional connection. Elephant families consist of mothers, daughters, sisters, grandmothers, and their dependent male calves. Within this structure, mothers and daughters maintain close associations throughout their lives, forming strong affiliative and cooperative relationships. Unlike males, who typically leave their natal family in their early teen years, daughters remain with their mothers, making mother-daughter bonds central to elephant society, knowledge transfer, culture, and the overall survival of the family. Even for elephants, it takes a village. #elephantvoices #elephantcommunication #elephantbehavior #elephants #sociallives #motheranddaughters

Today is #GivingTuesday - a day to lift up the causes that matter. We hope you’ll consider supporting ElephantVoices and the elephants whose lives inspire our work. We study the voices, behavior, and cultures of elephants, and we speak up for them in the face of human exploitation and a rapidly changing world. Our scientific data deepens our understanding of elephants, informs conservation policy, and strengthens education and advocacy on their behalf. ElephantVoices is a small team with a global impact. We collaborate with conservationists, animal-welfare experts, ethologists, cognitive biologists, linguists, and many others around the world to advance both science and protection for elephants. Your support makes this possible. On this Giving Tuesday, please consider donating. Together, we can secure a future where elephants continue to thrive - wild and free. 🔗 Visit the link in our bio to donate. Thank you! • #givingtuesday2025 #giveback #nonprofit #elephant #elephantvoices #nonprofitorganisation #dayofgiving

Happy Thanksgiving to our American followers! This year, as every year, we are grateful for our supporters; for nature and the wild places we share with other animals; for the science that guides our work and the curiosity that keeps us motivated; and - above all - for elephants, who continue to remind us how extraordinary they are. 🐘🖤 #Thanksgiving #Grateful

Ears so big he could almost take off. Here are some fascinating facts about elephant ears: - Thermoregulation: Elephants have a relatively low surface area to body ratio compared to many smaller animals - making overheating a risk for them. Extensive vascularisation (blood vessels) in the pinnae (ears) allows circulating blood to release excess heat. Rhythmic flapping of the ears helps an elephant to maintain core body temperature. - Acoustic reception: The large surface area enhances the detection and localisation of low-frequency sounds, facilitating long-distance communication between elephants. When an elephant is listening for a distant call you will notice that they stand stock-still with ears spread and slowly turn their heads to localise the sound - a bit like using a microphone with a parabolic reflector. - Behavioral signalling: Ear posture conveys an elephant’s emotional state. Behavioral postures that involve the ears are documented in The Elephant Ethogram and include Ear-Brush, Ear-Flap-Slide, Ear-Folding, Ear-Lifting, Ear-Slap, Ear-Spreading, Ear-Swat, Ear-Wave, Ears-Back, and Ears-Stiff. These behaviors provide fascinating insights into how elephants communicate and interact. Ears even secrete when elephants are really aroused. Go to The Elephant Ethogram (link in bio) and click on “Search Portal,” then use the Combined Dropdown Search to select Ears under “Active Body Part.” Enjoy! • #elephantvoices #theelephantethogram #elephant #elephantsfacts

The AA family, led by matriarch Angelina have clearly been in the swamp. 🐘: Angelina & the AAs 📍: Amboseli National Park, Kenya 🎥: Filmed in 2020 by @elephantvoices for The Elephant Ethogram Elephant ID: @amboseli_trust Learn more about elephant behaviour via the link in our bio. #ElephantVoices #TheElephantEthogram #ElephantBehavior #Conservation #Amboseli

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