Social
networking elephants never forget
December
2012. Asian elephants typically live in small, flexible, social groups centred
around females and calves while adult males roam independently. However, new
research shows that while Asian elephants in Sri Lanka may change their day to
day associations they maintain a larger, stable, network of friends from which
they pick their companions.
Social
networking
Researchers followed the friendships among over a hundred female adult Asian elephants in the Uda Walawe National Park in Sri Lanka for five seasons and analysed how these relationships changed over time. While the elephants tended to congregate in groups containing three adult females, there could be as many as 17 in a single group. Social strategies were also variable, with some elephants always being seen in each other's company while others were 'social butterflies' who frequently changed companions. Surprisingly, 16% completely changed their 'top five' friends over the course of the study. Elephants who had few companions were very faithful to them, whereas those who had many tended to be less loyal.
Researchers followed the friendships among over a hundred female adult Asian elephants in the Uda Walawe National Park in Sri Lanka for five seasons and analysed how these relationships changed over time. While the elephants tended to congregate in groups containing three adult females, there could be as many as 17 in a single group. Social strategies were also variable, with some elephants always being seen in each other's company while others were 'social butterflies' who frequently changed companions. Surprisingly, 16% completely changed their 'top five' friends over the course of the study. Elephants who had few companions were very faithful to them, whereas those who had many tended to be less loyal.
Analysis
of elephant 'ego-networks' showed that Asian elephants tended to also associate
with larger sets of companions, especially in dry seasons. Social bonds were
especially strong when resources were scarce, even to the extent of expelling
unfamiliar elephants from sources of water. This may be due in part to the
ecology of their environment, because other elephants, which live in drier
areas, congregate in greater numbers in wet seasons. It was previously thought
that, unlike African savannah elephants, Asian elephants had no extensive
social affiliations, but at the population level, extensive clusters of interconnected
groups were discovered.
Trunk
calls
Dr Shermin de Silva from the University of Pennsylvania explained that, "Elephants are able to track one another over large distances by calling to each other and using their sense of smell. So the 'herd' of elephants one sees at any given time is often only a fragment of a much larger social group. Our work shows that they are able recognize their friends and renew these bonds even after being apart for a long time."
Dr Shermin de Silva from the University of Pennsylvania explained that, "Elephants are able to track one another over large distances by calling to each other and using their sense of smell. So the 'herd' of elephants one sees at any given time is often only a fragment of a much larger social group. Our work shows that they are able recognize their friends and renew these bonds even after being apart for a long time."
The
research was published in published in BioMed Central's open access journal BMC
Ecology
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment
You only need to enter your comment once! Comments will appear once they have been moderated. This is so as to stop the would-be comedian who has been spamming the comments here with inane and often offensive remarks. You know who you are!