Elephants can recognize differences between human ethic groups, according to a paper published last week. Lucy Bates, of Scotland’s University of St Andrews, found that Kenyan elephants distinguish between Maasai and Kamba men using colour and smell clues.

“In the Amboseli ecosystem, Kenya, young Maasai men demonstrate virility by spearing elephants, but Kamba agriculturalists pose little threat,” she notes in her paper in Current Biology. “Elephants showed greater fear when they detected the scent of garments previously worn by Maasai than by Kamba men, and they reacted aggressively to the color associated with Maasai.”

To determine this, the researchers presented different elephant families with clean, unworn, red cloths and red cloths worn by either adult Kamba men or adult Maasai men for five days. When presented with the Maasai cloths the elephants took off away faster, moved further away, and took longer to relax after stopping.

Blooger Greg Laden has had similar experiences:

I’ve traveled literally hundreds of kilometers by foot together with Efe (Pygmy) hunters in the Ituri Forest. We see very few animals. The few we do see are attacked, killed, and eaten. Well, a lot of them actually get away, but that is the idea.

But I’ve also traveled many kilometers (not as many) alone. I would see many animals, and yes, they would run (or climb or whatever) away, but not as desperately. They knew I was not really one of the hunters, although I tried my best to look tough and hungry.

Left unexplained is what he was doing walking hundreds of kilometres with pygmy hunters. PZ Myers has also posted about this research, although his post is limited to the view that “Elephants are racists! They discriminate against people with sharp pointy spears!” Commenters on this post describe similar experiences to Laden, albeit with rabbits and crows, and an absence of hardy pygmies.

Image: Getty