Music

From MediaDuz World News Headquarters in Boseman, Montana, this is Cal's We Can Review

with Ryan Cal Calan.

Now, here's Cal.

New research published in the journal Frontiers in Veterinary Science shows that elephants

share a strange, unexplainable quirk that all people are familiar with.

Yons are contagious.

Specifically, elephants can catch yons from people.

Scientists don't really know what causes contagious yawning, but most of us have experienced it.

You're sitting around, staring at a friend or family member, you see them, yon, and then, you know, suddenly and explicably, you yon too.

Some cross-species yawning has been observed in dogs and chimps.

Who wouldn't like to see that?

But this is the first study that shows elephants can catch yons from humans.

The study draws on observations and experiments with captive elephants at zoos and rescue facilities.

In one case, Zo Rosman, a researcher from the University of New Mexico, studied 10 African elephants

at the Kinshasa Elephant Park in South Africa.

And, over the course of 13 consecutive nights, observed elephants catching yons from their handlers, as well as nine instances of elephants catching yons from each other.

Although yawning is common among many animals, the phenomenon of contagious yawning seems to only happen in intelligent and social animals.

In this study, a sense of connectedness between elephants and their regular handlers was keyed to the cross-species yon spreading.

As a note here, if somebody doesn't catch a yon in your vehicle, you kind of know that, you know, they're not intelligent or social.

And for the record, I don't hang out with many elephants, but I recently shacked up with another smart social animal.

My lab pup snort. I've been focused on training her for our first water fall season together, but maybe I should pay more attention to if she's catching my yons, or maybe I should do some experimentation of my own to see if I can catch yons from her.

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