Lets-Go-Rumble

A moderately loud, relatively flat, tonal Rumble of long duration (~4.5-6.5 seconds) and low pitch that is associated with rhythmic Ear-Flapping and given by an elephant, standing intently at edge of her group, calling repeatedly. The elephant, usually, though not exclusively, adult and female, indicates that she wishes to depart by Body-Axis-Pointing, repeated Rumbling, by exhibiting Intention-Movements, such as Foot-Swinging and Waiting behavior. The calling elephant repeats her ‘Let's go,’ appeal once every minute or so, sometimes calling for periods of up to half an hour, as she tries to persuade others to depart. She may Walk-Wait and Look-Back to see whether others are following her. The calling individual may gain the support of other individuals who join in her calling, but often this is a solo call.

The ‘let's go' is, in essence, a proposal: 'I want to go this direction, let's go together.' It is audibly distinguishable from most other elephant Rumbles due to its characteristic long drawn-out quality and the posture of the calling elephant, but its acoustic characteristics can be confused with the Cadenced-Rumble. The Let’s-Go-Rumble is one of the more commonly heard calls among a family of elephants.

There is a tendency for older females to produce this call more frequently than younger females, though juvenile females and adult males have also been heard to call. While a matriarch may propose a plan of action using a Let’s-Go-Rumble, very often she will simply move off without making any obvious audible suggestion, except an Ear-Flap-Slide or Ear-Slap motion with her ears (indicating a change of activity), presumably expecting (or at least hoping) others to follow without discussion! This is certainly not always the case, and many a ‘disagreement’ and ‘discussion’ takes place regarding plans of action in an elephant family.

References: Poole et al 1988; Poole 2011. (Full reference list)

This behavior occurs in the following context(s): Movement, Space & Leadership

Lets-Go-Rumble

Context: Movement Space & Leadership (1)

Matriarch, Provocadora, gf0012, is with her offspring in a subgroup of 6. They have been feeding. She gives two Ear-Flap-Slides and turns to face the direction she wants to go. Then Provocadora begins to Walk and gives a Let's Go Rumble while Ear-Flapping and stands Body-Axis-Pointing and Waiting for the others to turn around and come with her.

Her family has been pointing the other direction, but they turn and come with her and they walk off together. She gives another Let’s Go Rumble, Ear-Flapping and Body-Axis-Pointing and Waiting again. (Gorongosa, Mozambique)

Lets-Go-Rumble

Context: Movement Space & Leadership (2)

A young adult female and her calf have been mud splashing and the calf is now lying down, resting. There is an adolescent female out of view who we can hear is still mud splashing. The female in view gives an Ear-Slap, adopts a Casual-Stance and gives a Let's-Go-Rumble associated with Ear-Flapping. Note that Let's-Go-Rumbles typically begin with and Ear-Slap and are associated with Ear-Flapping.

She Waits and engages in Dusting and gives another, softer Let's-Go-Rumble and an Ear-Slap. She continues to Wait and Dust. More attentive Waiting and then she Orient-Towards the other female and again Waits. Finally she faces the direction she wants to go, and when her calf gets up, she begins to walk off. (Maasai Mara, Kenya)

Lets-Go-Rumble

Context: Movement Space & Leadership (3)

It is near dusk and Selengei is Waiting to lead her family out of Naboisho Conservancy. She is Listening and we can hear the sounds of Maasai and their livestock in the background as they head back to their boma. The elephants are waiting for the Maasai to be at a safe distance and are Waiting for their matriarch, Selengei to decide when to move. Her family is growing impatient. We hear two or three overlapping Let's-Go-Rumbles by the Waiting group as we can see them Ear-Flapping.

The female on the right gives an Ear-Flap-Slide as she becomes aware of Selengei's approach and prepares to move. We hear the filmmaker say that Selengei is coming. The camera pans out and we see Selengei has initiated a Group-March and the entire group of 40 elephants follows her movement. (Maasai Mara, Kenya)

Lets-Go-Rumble

Context: Movement Space & Leadership (4)

Due to the wind these calls are difficult to hear with out earphones, and while it is not possible to hear the quality of these calls well we have included this clip as an example of context. The caller(s) are out of view and we see just the reaction of Little E’s mother. Little E is just 3 days old and his mother stops for him to Suckle. As she does we can just hear over the noise of the wind a series of Let’s-Go-Rumbles. After the second his mother begins to walk. As she walks we hear a third call. In the next frame she has stopped again allowing Little E to Suckle and herself to Browse, but again we hear a Let’s Go and she is persuaded to move with her family. As she walks we hear a fifth call. (Maasai Mara, Kenya)

Lets-Go-Rumble

Context: Movement Space & Leadership (5)

The calls in this clip are barely audible as they are given by someone a bit further away, but we have included this as the resulting behavior is interesting.

Little E is 7 days old and is tired. He lies down to go to sleep. He is not given much chance, though. We see a young male walk by and then we begin to hear Rumbles. It sounds as if someone out of view is ready to go and is giving Let’s-Go-Rumbles. There are several in succession. Two allomothers arrive and mother and allomothers soon begin to touch him, nudge him to wake him up and use their feet to get him up. Someone Nudges him along and they being to move on. (Maasai Mara, Kenya)

Lets-Go-Rumble

Context: Movement Space & Leadership (6)

A classic example of the Let’s-Go-Rumble. A family group is resting in the middle of the day. One young female wants to go to the swamp. She moves to the edge of the group and engages in Body-Axis-Pointing. She stands facing in the direction she wants to go and then takes a few steps so that she is standing separate from the rest of the group, clearly pointing in the direction she wants to go. Then she begins walking and gives 2 Let’s Go-Rumbles (notice her Ear-Flapping and Ear-Folding).

Notice, after the first call, how she Looks-Back as if to see whether the rest of the group is following her. They don’t and she goes off to the swamp still calling. Eventually they follow her and they all enter the swamp to feed. (Amboseli, Kenya)

Lets-Go-Rumble

Context: Movement Space & Leadership (7)

This is not a good example of the Lets-Go-Rumble itself, as the callers are distant and there is too much background noise, but we have included it for context.

A family has been bathing at a pool. The adults have departed and are Waiting about 150 m away for juveniles and calves to follow. Some of the juveniles and calves depart as called, but a 4-year-old-male calf (circled) does not. We can see him Listening to the calling elephants, Ears-Stiff, but ignoring them. Finally, he leaves and is welcomed by his mother. Both adult females then give final Lets-Go-Rumbles associated with Ear-Flapping and they depart after Waiting ~ 5 minutes or more for him. (Amboseli, Kenya)

Lets-Go-Rumble

Context: Movement Space & Leadership (8)

A classic example of the Let’s-Go-Rumble. A family group is resting in the middle of the day. One young female wants to go to the swamp. She moves to the edge of the group and engages in Body-Axis-Pointing. She stands facing in the direction she wants to go and then takes a few steps so that she is standing separate from the rest of the group, clearly pointing in the direction she wants to go. Then she begins walking and gives 2 Let’s Go-Rumbles (notice her Ear-Flapping and Ear-Folding).

Notice, after the first call, how she Looks-Back as if to see whether the rest of the group is following her. They don’t and she continues toward the swamp still calling. The clip includes two more calls, but there are more when we are focused on the rest of the family. Eight minutes later they eventually follow her lead and they all head to the swamp to feed. Note that we are too far away to hear the Let's-Go calls clearly. (Amboseli, Kenya)

Lets-Go-Rumble

Context: Movement Space & Leadership (9)

With the NDs at KH4 waterhole. A female from another family begins to walk off followed by her juvenile male. As she moves off frame she gives a Let's-Go-Rumble and everyone begins to follow her. (Amboseli, Kenya)

Lets-Go-Rumble

Context: Movement Space & Leadership (10)

Prior to the start of this clip Angelina, her newborn twins, four allomothers (Arora B, Amora, Aspen and Allura), juvenile male Anson and a medium sized male (9 in total) entered the swamp and began to swim to the other side. A terrible drama unfolded there when one of the twins followed the adult male instead of Angelina. The male freaked out and Kicked-Back and Tusked at the twin who bobbed about like a buoy. Angelina finally went to the rescue and clashed with the male to get her infant back.

As this was unfolding Abra (Angelina's niece) and her 3 year old calf swim toward them from the other side. Rather than continuing across the swamp, Angelina returned the twins to the safety of the bank on our side of the swamp. When Abra arrived there was a Greeting-Ceremony. At some point - and it is hard to be sure where this transition occurred - the calls seemed to change tenor to Cadenced-Rumbles and then to Let's-Go-Rumbles.

This clip is the point when Angelina begins Let's-Go-Rumbling. She calls, Waits 50 seconds and then begins to move (clip has been shortened). She faces the direction she wants to go and calls again and begins to walk. Allura (we believe) turns and steps with her as do her twins and another 4 year old female. She calls a third time 10 seconds after the end of the second call and all members of the group have oriented north with her. As she calls the third time she Looks-Back to check whether her twins and others are following her. She Walk-Waits and calls a fourth time again Looking-Back as her family members gather around her. She waits 8 seconds and Ear-Slaps and possibly calls again. She begins to walk in earnest and 10 seconds later gives another Lets-Go-Rumble calls again. All follow her. She Looks-Back again to check that the twins are coming. She gives one more Ear-Slap and continues walking.

Note that these calls are barely audible due to the distance we were filming from and the interference from the wind. However, with earphones we can hear all except one and can clearly see her associated Ear-Flapping. (Amboseli, Kenya)

Lets-Go-Rumble

Context: Movement Space & Leadership (11)

Qoral, matriarch of the QB family has a newborn infant. There has been quite a bit of drama in the family this morning related to Qadija being in estrus. Now Qoral Initiates-Movement and gives a Rumble followed immediately by a Let's-Go-Rumble. She Looks-Back. Qasima and her calf are following. Qoral walks on to the consimilus and gives another Lets-Go-Rumble and again Looks-Back and Waits. (Amboseli, Kenya)

Lets-Go-Rumble

Context: Movement Space & Leadership (12)

Qoral, matriarch of the QB family has a newborn infant. There has been quite a bit of drama in the family this morning related to Qadija being in estrus and Qoral has seemed eager to go back to the woodland. There were some Rumbles leading up to this clip that we were not able to understand, but in the clip Qoral Initiates-Movement giving a series of Let's-Go-Rumbles. We can hear and see on the spectrogram that a couple of others join in, but we are not sure who. Qoral gives her Let's-Go-Calls as she walks away and others begin to fall in line following her as she heads into the consimilus. This is a nice example of how a matriarch typically gives Lets-Go-Rumbles - calling and departing rather than Body-Axis-Pointing, calling and Waiting. (Amboseli, Kenya)

Lets-Go-Rumble

Context: Movement Space & Leadership (13)

Qoral, matriarch of the QB family has a newborn infant. There has been quite a bit of drama in the family this morning related to Qadija being in estrus and Qoral has seemed eager to go back to the woodland.

In this video clip we just miss catch a good shot of her walking up behind Qadija and Pushing her to get her moving. Then she pauses and both females touch Qadija's newborn and Rumble. This does not sound like a Coo-Rumble and neighter does it sound like a Let's-Go-Rumble but we notice that other family members start coming toward Qoral. Several more Rumbles are given as Qoral begins to move and others follow but they sound more like the calls that elephants make when they are in unison about something, rather than Let's-Go-Rumbles and to shorten this clip we have excluded them.

But then as Qoral begins to walk again she gives what sounds like a Lets-Go-Rumble as she disappears from view. We catch up with her and again she gives a Let's-Go-Rumble. The family is following her as she leads them to the woodland. (Amboseli, Kenya)