PANDA

China houses the some 230 of the world’s remaining pandas. Another 1000 live
in mountains to the southwest The Qin Ling, reaching to 12,359 feet, form a
natural haven for pandas, shielding them from cold air that sweeps down from
Siberia. From the southeast, monsoons provide ample rain and warmth for the
growth of bamboo, their primary food.
Harsh climate and steep terrain have limited human settlement. Though
timbering is done here, China’s government recently agreed to establish a new
panda reserve, which would limit clear-cutting operations.

Like true bears, panda mothers sometimes fast after giving birth. The mom gives
without feeding or defecating for 25 days. Mom and cub stay together two and a
half years.
Mom cradles the newborn, about the same way humans cradle theirs. Her huge
palms supports the infant, which seems to look upward, although those young
eyes will remain closed for another 3 weeks. The distinctive markings of a panda
are already evident, determined by skin pigmentation, not by the colour of infant
fur.
A panda mom pays total attention to her infant. When it makes noises of distress,
mom changes positions and gives comfort with little pats, much as a human
would. Mom licks her baby frequently. Her maternal touch soothes the young
one, which emits soft squeals of contentment. Mom also consumes all the infants
waste – whose smell could attract predators, such as the lethal monk – like
yellow throated marten.
The truly serious threats are not from natural predators, but from poachers, loss
of habitat, and genetic isolation of the remaining wild giant panda populations.
Some groups may be too small for effective reproduction – the dangers of
inbreeding are great. By 5 months, they start walking. After the first year on
breast milk, the baby Panda starts eating bamboo.

ELEPHANT TALK
All is quiet to the human ear as a stately procession of elephants weld their way
along route – and yet the air is filled with the sound of elephant calls, resonating
from near and far just below the pitch audible to humans. Elephants, perhaps
alone among land mammals, use ulfrasound to communicate across distances of
several miles.

Some capacity beyond memory and the 5 senses seems to inform elephants,
silently and from a distance, of the whereabouts and activities of other elephants.
Fluttering and vibrating as air passes through the nasal passage, the skin on an
elephants forehead signals that infrasonic vocalizations are taking place. The
range of sounds – about 10 octaves. Elephant sounds include barks, snorts,
trumpets, roars, growls and rumbles – the rumbles can be easily heard by the
elephant, but humans cannot hear them.
The universe is full of infrasound: It is generated by earthquakes, wind, thunder,
volcanoes and ocean storms – massive movements of earth, air, fire and water.
Intense infrasonic calls have been recorded from finback whales.

Ultrasound = very high frequency sound

Infrasound = very low frequency sound

Why use infrasound? It turns out that the lowest frequencies (14-35 hertz) has
remarkable properties – it is little affected by passage through forests and
grasslands and can allow the elephant to communicate over long distances.

Communication is needed to signal to the males that the female is in estrus – the
female is only in breeding season for a few days every 4-5 years – as she needs
2 years of gestation followed by 2 more of nursing. The dominant musth male
when he finds the estrus female, guards her and mates with her every few hours
until her period of receptivity ends.
The female informs males of her estrus by a unique sequence of intense, low-
frequency calls. Slow, deep rumbles rising gently, become stronger and higher in
pitch, the sink down again to silence at the end. The sequence is always the
same and may continue for ½ hour, and before the day is out, the female will be
surrounded by male elephants.

Adult males overall, are less vocal than females, yet very responsive to female
activities.

Out of sight and ordinary acoustic range, separated elephants synchronized their
behaviour uncannily, even when the wind direction prevented their using the
sense of smell to keep track of one another.
Are infrasonic calls, then, one of the means by which elephants normally
coordinate their behaviour over long distances?
Elephants have highly evolved smelling senses too and hold their trunks up in
the air – when wind direction interferes with picking up scents, infrasonic
communication becomes vital. A remarkable sight, groups of as many as 100
females and calves periodically freeze, at the same moment, apparently to catch
faint, distant calls. They will remain motionless, with raised, spread ears, for as
long as a minute.

Led by the matriarch, females and their calves eat, drink, sleep and travel
together in sociable cooperation. Different family units (each consisting typically
of about 10 animals) will often join forces with each other; known as bond
groups, they are thought to be loners, avoiding one another particularly when in
musth.

Our experiments on infrasound communication suggest that each elephant lives

in a network of communication in which the animal-to-animal distance is
potentially at least 2 ½ miles. This network has something to do with the ability of
elephants to maintain an elabourate hierarchical society even in sparse desert
environments.
Even after short separations, bond-group members greet each other with intense
excitement; rumbling, urinating, whirling in circles, and trumpeting. Constant
communication helps reinforce the social bonds that are key to the elephants
survival.