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The Elephant Scientist

464 Words2 Pages

In The Elephant Scientist, Caitlin O’Connell tracks and studies the movement of elephants at the Etosha National Park. O’Connell uses her previous knowledge of insects to help her better understand the behavioral patterns of elephants (O’Connell 1). In this short essay, I will document O’Connell’s great discovery about elephants in Namibia, Africa.
First, O’Connell spotted a family of elephants near the Mushara waterhole in Namibia (O’Connell 2). As O’Connell was peering through her binoculars, the elephants stopped, pounded on the ground, and froze together in unison (O’Connell 2-3). That’s when O’Connell created the seismic communication theory. O’Connell believed that the elephants may have been communicating through seismic signals, like …show more content…

They buried two geophones in the ground and placed microphones nearby to see if the seismic recordings supported the theory (O’Connell 34-35). In the end, O’Connell and the team discovered that the ground vibrations of the elephants had its own velocity and integrity (O’Connell 35). After the experiment, O’Connell published her findings and gained worldwide attention (O’Connell 35). Soon after, she began to receive grants to return to Mushara and to see if elephants could really communicate through vibrations in the ground (O’Connell 35). Once O’Connell and her new team set up camp in Namibia, they began their experiment with a few wild elephant groups to see if they really do respond to seismic cues (O’Connell 43-44). With their new technology and equipment, O’Connell was able to scientifically prove that elephants really do respond to vibrations in the ground (O’Connell 44-45). After she proved her theory was correct, she published a book that gained international attention, called The Elephant’s Secret Sense (O’Connell 46). Thus, O’Connell was able to prove her seismic communication theory through several different experiments. Her previous knowledge of insects helped her discover that elephants really do communicate through seismic singles. O’Connell’s discovery changed the world of ethology and improved our understanding of

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