Elephant seals use a musician's mind-set to recognise other members of their group from the complex rhythm of their voices, a study has shown.

Scientists studying a colony of elephant seals in Ano Nuevo State Park, California, conducted an experiment based on the animals' social behaviour.

Variations in the computer-modified recorded roars made by powerful "alpha" males showed how sensitive less dominant "beta" males were to the tempo and pitch of individual calls.

The betas fled when the changes were small enough to be within the range of a particular alpha male, but stayed put when the alterations were more extreme.

Lead researcher Dr Nicolas Mathevon, from the University of Lyon/Saint-Etienne in France, said: "This is the first natural example where on a daily basis, an animal uses the memory and the perception of rhythm to recognise other members of the population.

"There have been experiments with other mammals showing that they can detect rhythm, but only with conditioning.

"It is possible that maybe the ability to perceive rhythm is actually very general in animals, but it's extremely important for elephant seals, to the point of survival.

"Competing for females, the males fight very violently, even to the point of killing one another.

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"So it's very important for them to accurately recognise the voices."

Different individual seal calls include elements such as single, double, or burst pulses, much as a human musician might divide a single beat into one long note, two shorter notes, or a frenzy of slides and trills, Dr Mathevon said.

Elephant seals may be able to recognise such fine musical variations to distinguish calls, he added. Future research could provide the answer.