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Science Quickly

White Rhinos Eavesdrop to Know Who's Who

Science Quickly

Scientific American

Science

4.2639 Ratings

🗓️ 26 August 2020

⏱️ 4 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

The finding could potentially help wildlife managers keep better tabs on their herds. Jason G. Goldman reports.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

Understanding the human body is a team effort. That's where the Yachtel group comes in.

0:05.8

Researchers at Yachtolt have been delving into the secrets of probiotics for 90 years.

0:11.0

Yacold also partners with nature portfolio to advance gut microbiome science through the global grants for gut health, an investigator-led research program.

0:19.6

To learn more about Yachtolt, visit yawcult.co.

0:22.7

J-P. That's Y-A-K-U-L-T.C-O.J-P. When it comes to a guide for your gut, count on Yacolt.

0:33.5

This is Scientific Americans' 60-second science. I'm Jason Goldman. Got a minute?

0:39.8

Rhinos have notoriously poor eyesight, so they mostly rely on their noses to understand the world around them.

0:48.0

But there is one interaction in which sound plays a key role.

0:52.8

Southern white rhino males can either be dominant or subordinate,

0:57.4

and only the dominant males hold and defend territories. New research finds that they eavesdrop

1:04.3

on the cause of other males to know who is who. We found that contact calls carry information

1:10.6

about the dominant status of the

1:12.8

male. That means that only by listening to the quorum, you can say the male is very plural or

1:20.3

something else. Ivana Sinkova, a zoologist at the University of KwaZulu Natal in South Africa.

1:27.9

She and her team spent almost two years in South Africa's Shishluwi-Umfilosi Park,

1:34.0

recording the social contact and courtship calls of male rhinos.

1:38.4

Then they played those calls back to the dominant territorial males and watch the responses.

1:45.1

The researchers asked that the rhino calls not be included in this podcast due to the

1:50.7

concern that poachers could use the calls to lure rhinos closer.

1:55.5

Back to the reactions of the rhinos.

1:57.7

They started to search for the intruder, developed quickly, and spent the longest time

2:07.6

searching around for the intruder after the playback office for the next goal,

...

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