It's True -- They Like Yoyo Ma

How does one discover that elephant enjoy listening to Yoyo Ma?  The answer is -- quite by accident.

It all started when I was asked by Dr. Lucy King to help in her preliminary research to determine if bees could be an effective way to stop elephant from destroying trees and crop raiding. The study required working with a known population in order to avoid repeatedly sampling the same herd.  That is where I came in.

Lucy and I spent several days playing recordings of bee swarms to known groups of elephant on Lewa; as the control, we played Vivaldi’s Four Seasons.  We found that elephant frequently were uneasy and left at the sound of bees, but we also noticed that they sometimes came closer to the car to listen when we played the Vivaldi. 

Lire, from the Currency family,
using her trunk to pick up the
vibrations while listening 

A short time later, I had a large bull below my bathroom window.  When he heard my voice, he started to leave.  I quickly turned on Yoyo Ma performing Bach’s concertos for the cello.  To my delight and amazement, the bull returned and stood listening for over half an hour.

At first I could not believe what I was seeing, but when I began to think about it, it all made perfect sense.  Elephant are highly intelligent, very sensitive and emotional.  One of their primary senses is hearing, and they often communicate in very low tones that humans cannot even hear.  Of course, they like Yoyo Ma!

After this epiphany, I decided to further explore my hypothesis and began randomly playing Yoyo Ma for various groups of elephant – both on Lewa and in

Another example of leaning up against
dead wood to enhance listening to
Yoyo Ma

Samburu (a national reserve two hours north of Lewa).  Sometimes they were unsure of what was happening and moved off, but often, whole families would stop whatever they were doing and just listen – clearly savoring the experience.  I frequently observed them leaning their forehead up against some dead wood or laying their trunk on the ground in order to better pick up the vibrations.  They also sometimes moved closer to the car.

Elephant would also sometimes lay their
trunk on the ground to pick up the vibrations

Another interesting bit of information came to light.  While I thought  they would prefer the solo cello concertos, I discovered that, in fact, they prefer the cello in combination with an orchestra.

So, there you have it.  As strange as it may seem, elephant really do enjoy listening to the extraordinary music of Yoyo Ma.