They’ve seen us (Image: Michael Nichols/National Geographic)

ELEPHANTS are not fazed by dynamite explosions, but change their behaviour significantly to avoid humans. That is the finding of a major study of how forest elephants deal with oil exploration in central Africa.

Peter Wrege and colleagues at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, used listening devices similar to those designed to eavesdrop on whales to monitor the sounds and seismic activity of oil prospecting in the Loango National Park in Gabon. After collecting 27,000 hours of recordings, the team analysed how dynamite blasts and other human activity, such as driving …