New study on elephants and their family groups

Elephants live in large groups led by older females. But what happens when the matriarch dies? What happens to the family groups? Poachers target older elephants for their ivory tusks because their tusks are larger. When older elephants are killed, the family groups rearrange themselves, says a new elephant study (The New York Times, December 18, 2015).

The Colorado State University has conducted elephant research in Kenya, and has published the results in Current Biology. Elephant family groups managed to survive the loss of their matriarchs, said Shirfa Goldenberg, a wildlife ecologist, and part of the research team.

The researchers tracked female elephants in northern Kenya. Elephants live in core, bond, and clan groups. Core groups have close relatives, whereas bond and clan groups include more distant relatives. After poaching incidents, the researchers observed what happened to the family groups in each type – core, bond, and clan groups. A study led by George Wittemyer of Colorado State University, and co-author of the new study, indicated that poachers killed an estimated 100,000 African elephants for their ivory from 2010-2012. It was not only poaching that affected family groups – a major drought in 2009 also affected the population. The researchers observed adult female behavior and the family groups in Samuburu and Buffalo Springs national reserves over a 16 year period from 1997-2013.

The researchers noticed that different core groups reassembled after the loss of adults. The groups sometimes rearranged genetically, but the researchers also noted unrelated groupings. After the loss of a matriarch, female offspring often leveraged their mother’s contacts to rebuild social networks.

Goldenberg said that in one case an elephant family group lost all of its adults in a brief period. Three young females and three young males remained. A 12-year-old female in the group took charge and linked her group to one with an older female matriarch. However, Goldenberg said that it takes time, and doesn’t happen overnight.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/22/science/after-poaching-deaths-elephants-rearrange-families.html?hpw&rref=science&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=well-region&region=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well&_r=0

MARTINA NICOLLS is an international aid and development consultant, and the author of:- Similar But Different in the Animal Kingdom (2017), The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).