Low Frequencies....

[Martin Human <martin@hpentccl.grenoble.hp.com>]

I wrote: 

>Apparently  elephants use this form of communication for distances (I have
> heard quoted) of up  to 200 km.

and Ron corrected:

>Good grief!  No, perhaps 4-5 miles tops are the figures I have heard (and
>that under ideal conditions).  This was worked on by Katherine Payne at
>Cornell.

I must say I was somewhat astonished when I saw the figure of 200km! I probably 
read it in some kiddies comic......tee hee!

Jonathon Woolf discussed predators hearing/localizing high frequency 
sounds, and Della is proposing the use of low frequencies as predator-inaudible 
communication for dinos. However, given that elephants use them (demonstrated), 
and that elephants are large predator-free animals (except for man, and I can't 
imagine LF were developed for _our_ non-benefit), the question is:
-  do they indeed develop the ability to communicate this way as a means of not 
alerting predators, or 
- did they develop this simply because size = ability to produce low 
frequencies? 

Just pointing to possible red herrings (I _think_ I am anyway).

martin@hpentccl.grenoble.hp.com