Welcome to this edition of Over a Cup of Coffee!

In this newsletter

• Elephants have names for each other

• Bumblebees can reason logically

• Endangered birds to be rescued by mosquitoes

Elephants have names for each other

A study conducted by researchers from Kenya, Norway and the US has found that elephants call each other by specific names. This is the first time such behavior has been found in animals other than humans.

Dolphins and parrots have a system to address each other by mimicking an individual’s voice but the elephant calls are quite distinct and sound more like names that they recognize an individual in their herd with.

The researchers found this by analyzing hundreds of wild African elephant calls recorded between 1986 and 2022. To sift through the large trove of data, the team used artificial intelligence (AI) and specifically looked at three types of rumbles.

• Contact calling - when an elephant called another elephant who was more than 50 meters away

• Greeting calls - when elephants were close to each other

• Caregiving - when a female elephant was comforting a calf

The AI helped determine which elephant was being called since humans were not able to differentiate between the rumbling sounds.

Interestingly, the rumbling also contained other information such as the caller’s characteristics such as their age, sex, emotional state, and much more.

Nevertheless, the researchers found that every elephant in the herd used the same name for a specific member.

To know more about the research findings, you can read this Nature paper.

Bumblebees can reason logically

In another first, bumblebees have been found to think logically.

In a study conducted in wild bumblebees by Gema Martin-Ordas, a lecturer at the University of Stirling in the UK, the insects showed an innate ability for inferential reasoning.

This is a type of logical reasoning that allows us to solve problems even if we have incomplete information.

For instance, if we are told that one of the two cups in front of us has a little reward, then lifting one cup and not finding the reward lets us determine where the reward is located.

Martin-Ordas conducted multiple experiments where bumblebees were given the choice between two, three and four strips but only some strips held a reward (sucrose).

The bees came out on top for all the experiments, demonstrating an ability that has only been seen in vertebrates so far.

The research points to the possibility that brain size might not be a prerequisite for abilities like logical reasoning.

You can find more about the experiment in this paper published in Biology Letters.

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Endangered birds to be rescued by mosquitoes

Honeycreepers are small, colorful birds native and unique to Hawaii. Many years ago, more than 50 species of honeycreepers flew around Hawaiian forests but now the numbers are down to 17.

A few more species are expected to go extinct this year.

The reason: Avian malaria

Transmitted by mosquitoes that were introduced to Hawaii in the 1800s, avian malaria is deadly since the birds have no immunity, and a mosquito bite is sufficient to bring a bird down.

Some birds had survived at higher elevations of the Hawaiian forests since the temperatures were too cold for the mosquitoes to survive. As the world warms up, these areas are no longer outside the reach of the mosquitoes and only human intervention can stop them.

The solution to the problem is strangely, mosquitoes again.

To counter the spread of diseases like Dengue and Zika, humans have been using a new approach called incompatible insect technique.

Like the microbiome in our guts, mosquitoes too have bacteria inside their bodies and a specific type called Wolbachia can impact its reproductive cells.

If a mating pair has the same type of Wolbachia in their bodies, they can reproduce but if there is a mismatch, there is no progeny.

The type of Wolbachia in Hawaiian mosquitoes is known and conservationists have released more than 10 million male mosquitoes which have another strain in their bodies.

Since female mosquitoes mate only once in their lifetime, if they do so, with a mosquito with a different Wolbachia type, they won’t produce any progency and the march of the malaria infected mosquitoes will cease.

You can read what on what more is being done to conserve the honeycreepers in this NPR report.

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Until next time,
Ameya