Summary
Elephants can sense a rumble from miles away — through the ground. Deep Look explains how low calls travel as vibrations in the earth and how elephants pick them up through their sensitive feet.
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All ages
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Teaching resources
Discussion questions
Talk about it
An elephant's deep call makes the ground itself vibrate. Far-off elephants feel those vibrations through their feet, turning the earth into a giant telephone line.
- How can an elephant 'hear' another elephant through the ground?
- What is traveling through the earth to carry the message?
- Why might sensing ground vibrations help elephants stay in touch over long distances?
Quick work-a-long
Vocabulary: vibration, sound, sense, signal.
Try it: Put your ear on a table while a partner taps the far end. Write how vibrations carried the sound to you, like the ground to an elephant.