Nairobi - The buzz of angry bees can stir elephants to sound a "rumbling" alarm, signalling troop members to flee their attackers, a study released on Monday said.
Not only do they run from the sound of bees, they also take cover when their rumble is played back even in the absence of bees, researchers from Oxford University, Save the Elephants and Disney's Animal Kingdom said.
The team made the discovery in an ongoing study of elephants in Kenya.
"In our experiments we played the sound of angry bees to elephant families and studied their reaction," said Lucy King of Oxford University's zoology department and charity Save the Elephants, who led the research.
"Importantly we discovered elephants not only flee from the buzzing sound, but make a unique rumbling call as well as shaking their heads."
As well as being a response to threat, the rumble may also be a way of teaching inexperienced young elephants to beware, according to the findings published in the PLoS One journal.
But it is yet to be established whether the rumble call is a response to threats other than from bees.
"The calls also give tantalising clues that elephants may produce different sounds in the same way that humans produce different vowels, by altering the position of their tongues and lips," said Dr Joseph Soltis of Disney's Animal Kingdom.
Previous research has shown that elephants avoid bee hives in the wild. Last year a study revealed that elephants avoid fences with bee hives tied on them, thus reducing raids on farms.
Despite their thick hides, adult elephants can be stung around their eyes or up their trunks, whilst calves with thinner skin can be killed by a swarm of stinging bees, the study said. - Sapa-AFP