An elephant never forgets…a voice.

A study found the gentle giants can distinguish a warlike tribe from a more peaceable people, simply by listening to recordings of their voices.

Not only could the African elephants tell the two languages apart, they could also work out if the speaker was a man or a woman and an adult or a child.

This is despite the recordings being just a few seconds long.

The researchers, including conservationist Cynthia Moss, believe the creatures use voice and language to help them work out which humans pose a threat to them.

They can then choose whether to defend themselves against attack or continue going about life as usual.

The researchers began my making recordings of members of two Kenyan tribes repeating the phrase ‘Look, look over there, a group of elephants is coming’.

One tribe was the Massai, who historically killed elephants as a rite of passage on entering adulthood. They also take revenge when elephants kill their cattle.

The second was the Kamba, who farm crops and have a more amicable relationship with the elephants.

The animals were clearly more scared of the Massai and bunched together defensively on hearing them speak.

They also used their trunks to sniff at the air on hearing a Massai voice, likely in an attempt to pick up smells that would provide more information about the intruder.

As the same phrase was used in all the recordings and it was spoken in the same way each time, it is believed the animals were able to tell the two languages apart.

Their skill didn’t end there. The elephants were also more likely to act defensively on hearing a male Massai than female.

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