Why count heads when a whiff of urine will do? According to a study reported online 4 December in Biology Letters, elephants rely on scent to keep track of their kin. When researchers relocated pee-drenched dirt around Amboseli National Park in Kenya, female elephants at the front of a roaming group showed the most interest when the transferred tinkle belonged to either a relative not currently traveling with the group or a relative that was actually traveling behind the leader. The scent, researchers say, may have prompted the elephants to make a mental note: My sister or daughter has moved.
