It is easy for us to tell our friends from our en emies. But can other animals do the same? Elephants can! They can use their sense of vision and smell to tell the difference between people who pose a threat and those who do not.

In Kenya, researchers found that elephants react differently to clothing worn by men of the Maasai and Kamba ethnic groups. Young Maasai men spear animals and thus pose a threat to elephants; Kamba men are mainly farmers and are not a danger to elephants.

In an experiment conducted by animal scientists, elephants were first presented with clean clothing or clothing that had been worn for five days by either a Maasai or a Kamba man. When the ele phants detected the smell of clothing worn by a Maasai man, they moved away from the smell faster and t ook longer to relax than when they detected the smells of either clothing worn by Kamba men or clothing that had not been worn at all.

Garment color also plays a role, though in a different way. In the same study, when the elephants saw red clothing not worn before, they reacted angrily, as red is typically worn by Maasai men. Rather than run ning away as they did with the smell, the elephants acted aggressively toward the red clothing.