Active both day and night
Rest and wallowing
Social organization
Territorial behavior and use
Home range
Range size
Aggression
Olfaction and scent marking
Visual signals/displays
Vocalization
- Lion-like growl and elephant-like trumpet
- Heard during a fight
- Long snort
- Signals anger
- Short snort, like a sneeze
- Sign of alarm
- May be accompanied with pricked ears and wrinkled nostrils
- A startle reaction to newcomers
- "High-pitched wonk"
- Indicates fear
- High-pitched scream
- Given in extreme fear (terror)
- "Mmwonk"
- A deep, resonant sound
- Signals contentment
- Squeak
- Done with different tones and intonations
- Possible meanings
- "I'm lost"
- "Where are you?"
- "I'm over here"
- Other possible emotions that are not yet understood
- Breathing, long and slow, or short and quick
- Communicates greetings, anxiety, and reassurance
- "Puffing snort"
- A common greeting when males and females encounter one another (Goddard 1967)
Walk and run
Learned behavioral associations
Symbiotic relationships
Elephants
Black Rhinoceros at the Denver Zoo enjoying wallowing
Image credit: © Drew Avery from Flickr. Some rights reserved.
Estes (1991)
Goddard (1967)
Merz (1991)
Schenkel & Schenkel-Hulliger (1969)