- Analyse and interpret elephant acoustical and behavioral data using machine learning/AI and advanced linguistics: Work both in-house with Dr. Michael Pardo and in collaboration with the Earth Species Project and the UC Berkeley linguistics team under Gašper Beguš. Publish key findings.
- Verify the Elephant Calls Database: Ensure accuracy and completeness of close to 11,000 records, forming the backbone for advanced analyses.
- Prepare for and begin field research in Amboseli: Prepare for and begin to collect additional vocalisations from known elephants in known contexts, in partnership with the Amboseli Trust for Elephants, to test hypotheses developed from AI-driven analyses.
- Utilize The Elephant Ethogram as a basis for the further study of elephant culture, behavior and communication. This unique and fully searchable online database documents some 322 African elephant Behaviors and 103 Behavioral Constellations with written descriptions, educational video clips from the wild (2400+ with detailed captions), audio with spectrograms (around 250 field recordings) and hundreds of photographs. The contents of The Elephant Ethogram have been used as a basis for several studies and more are ongoing.
- Collaborate with Sara Keen at the Earth Species Project Earth Species Project Submit our manuscript “Social context information and acoustic convergence in elephant vocal choruses” for publication.
- Collaborate with Dr. Lucy Bates on an essay entitled, Pointing with your nose: Do elephants point, and how do we know? The chapter will appear in an edited book, Pointing: Culture, Development and Evolution about pointing in humans and animals. Our work summarises the state-of-knowledge on elephant pointing, in relying in part on data held in The Elephant Ethogram, our video collection and our long-term observations. The chapter forms the basis for further collaborative research on the subject.
- Collaborate with British writer Melanie Challenger on an essay about humor in elephants for a book on humor in animals, entitled, Jokesters with Feathers, Tails, and Scales: Animals' Senses of Humor, Humor and Moral Life. The book, a collection of essays about the cognitive foundation, varieties, and functions of animal humor and its relevance to moral life, is expected to be published in 2026.
- Contribute our knowledge and data to educational institutions and the media to reach a global audience.
We will continue to offer advice, sounds and images from our archives, to selected high-impact documentary films and educational and media institutions, to broaden interest in elephants and educate the public about their natural behavior and protection of their habitats. - Disseminate science-based education and science-telling via ElephantVoices’ social media channels, ElephantVoices.org and external media, partly based on annotated video clips from The Elephant Ethogram. Since the launch of The Elephant Ethogram in May 2021 quite a few of our posts on Facebook/Instagram have gone viral, some reaching millions of people.
- Work with BBC Radio 3 on a special edition of Between the Ears, Elephant Voices, to be broadcast on 22 March.
- Continue to advise documentary films on elephant behavior. In 2026 we are working toward a major collaborative project. Stay tuned.
- Redesign and modernise our website elephantvoices.org: Launch a modern, interactive, user-and mobile-friendly site during the first quarter of 2026, integrating the The Elephant Ethogram and parts of the Elephant Calls Database to strengthen global outreach and to inspire people to care about elephants.
- Continue to advocate for elephants against the ivory trade, trophy hunting, and the capture of elephants for captivity. As an elephant expert Joyce Poole is a member of the African Elephant Specialist Group (AfESG) of the Species Survival Commission of the IUCN and contributes time to the development of policies to conserve and protect elephants.
- End the killing of large adult male elephants from the cross-border Amboseli population by trophy hunters in Tanzania. In late 2023, two of Amboseli's large adult males were shot by trophy hunters after they crossed the international border into Tanzania, breaking a 30-year moratorium that protected this population. Another three were shot and killed in early 2024. We worked closely with our Kenyan colleagues to put a stop to this killing, and will continue to follow up on this as long as it takes. Read our multi-author letter published in Science in July 2024.
- Advocacy: Provide science-based advice, statements and affidavits on selected elephant conservation issues and welfare cases. ElephantVoices has contributed numerous affidavits and statements for elephants in legal cases, with the goal of improving the conditions for the elephants in question whether in the wild or in captivity, a release back to the wild or to sanctuary, or for the purpose of stopping capture and export of elephants from the wild to a life in captivity. Over many years, ElephantVoices' Dr. Joyce Poole has been an expert witness for the Non-Human Rights Project endeavour to apply for a writ of habaes corpus for elephants. More recently, in an effort to imagine how representation for elephants might be achieved, Dr. Poole is a member of the Multispecies Constitution Project, a group of scientists, and legal and constitutional scholars convened by the Berggruen Institute who are exploring the possible language and structure for a multi-species constitution. Our advocacy efforts will continue, and will be prioritised on a case-by-case basis.
Read about the case for non-human rights for elephants in this article in The Atlantic from 16 November 2021.
The largest video and audio library of elephant behaviors.