The great ears of the African elephant are probably used for ventilation and visual communication as well as for hearing. The eyesight is poor, the eyes being comparatively small and fixed on the animal's large and relatively immobile head. The most sensitive organ is the trunk, which is frequently at work, picking up scents of food and danger from the ground and the air. Observers first noted in the 1980s that elephants produce, with their nasal passages, rumbling sounds below the range of human hearing. Because such sounds travel well and because elephant hearing is better at low frequencies, the animals very likely use these sounds to communicate with one another over longdistances.
Elephants are gregarious and keenly sensitive to one another's calls and movements.
They associate in herds of 15 to 30 or more usually related members led by an old female, called a matriarch. Bulls driven from herds live alone or in bachelor herds. Elephants commonly feed in the morning, evening, and at night and rest during the middle of the day. When migrating, they often trek single file. Everyone knows what an elephant is but few know about their personalities.