According to researchers from the University of Queensland, African elephants rely heavily on their sense of smell to communicate with one another. This includes distinguishing mates, outsiders, and maintaining social cohesion within groups. The study found that odors could relay information about an individual’s age, health, reproductive status, location, identity, social status, and family relationships. Female elephants, in particular, use scent for mediation of female cooperation, maternal behavior and to monitor up to 30 other elephants from urine samples. The research project involved analyzing DNA, glands, urine, and manure from 113 elephants in Malawi and Africa to identify family groupings. Elephants are also able to use smell to detect and monitor other elephants within and outside their herd. When it comes to interacting, elephants perform an “elaborate greeting ceremony” that involves body rubbing, trumpet, rumbling, entwining trunks, clicking tusks, releasing temporal gland secretions, urine, and dung. The study shows that elephants are complex animals, and sound is not their only communication method. The research, titled “A pachyderm perfume: odor encodes identity and group membership in African elephants,” was published in Scientific Reports in October 2022.