Behavioural responses of free-ranging Asian elephants (Elephas maximus) towards dying and dead conspecifics

Sharma, Nachiketha; Pokharel, Sanjeeta Sharma; Kohshima, Shiro; Sukumar, Raman

doi:10.1007/s10329-019-00739-8

Cited by 27 publications

(30 citation statements)

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“…Observations of zoo and wild elephants exhibiting signs of distress or showing empathetic and helping behaviors towards dying and deceased conspecifics [23,24] suggest that death, although a natural process, can be an emotionally challenging experience. Whether a death yields an adrenal GC response likely depends on the relationship to the individual, the strength of social bonds, and social support from conspecifics or human caretakers.…”

Section: Life Events and Adrenal Gc Activitymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…By contrast, loss of individuals and social bonds is generally considered a negative stimulus. Wild elephants have been observed showing empathetic behaviors towards dying and deceased conspecifics [23,24], suggesting that death of conspecifics, in addition to disrupting social groups, can be emotionally distressing for individual elephants at least in the short-term. Similarly, disruption in group composition from poaching in wild female African elephants negatively affected reproduction and was associated with increased GCs [25].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Effects of physiological changes and social life events on adrenal glucocorticoid activity in female zoo-housed Asian elephants (Elephas maximus)

et al. 2020

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Ensuring good health and welfare is an increasingly important consideration for conservation of endangered species and includes breeding of individuals managed under human care. Understanding how factors in the captive environment affect individual animal wellbeing can be aided by long-term monitoring of biological functioning. This study involved longitudinal assessments (4 to 28 years) of reproductive and adrenal hormones in zoo-housed female Asian elephants (Elephas maximus) (age range 4 to ~71 years) to elucidate patterns in adrenal glucocorticoid (GC) activity in association with reproductive and demographic factors, and examine individual response to major social changes. Concentrations of serum and urinary cortisol covaried more consistently with physiological changes (ovarian cycle phase, puberty, pregnancy, lactational anestrus, and age) than with social life events (births, deaths, and facility transfers). Cortisol fluctuated across the ovarian cycle with mean concentrations being higher in the follicular than in the luteal phase, and concentrations were highest in lactational anestrous compared to all other reproductive states. The elephants in this study exhibited substantial individuality in adrenal GC response to major social change, reinforcing the need to assess welfare on an individual basis and to consider factors influencing the impact of perceived stressors, such as social relationships, social support, temperament, and life history. Outcomes from this study deepen our understanding of Asian elephant physiology and highlight the importance of taking intrinsic patterns of hormone secretion into account when evaluating the impact of external factors. Finally, a better understanding of the impact of social change and resiliency in response to real and perceived stressors allows us to improve social management to enhance welfare in both captive settings and free-ranging environments.

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Section: Life Events and Adrenal Gc Activitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of physiological changes and social life events on adrenal glucocorticoid activity in female zoo-housed Asian elephants (Elephas maximus)

et al. 2020

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“…Although Asian elephants share several similarities with their African counterparts, possessing social, behavioral, and morphological similarities, they also differ, from physical characteristics including their size and ear shape to the structure of their dominance hierarchies (Sharma et al . 2019).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…It is widely accepted that elephants have an awareness of and a general interest in death (Sharma et al . 2019). Male elephants approach the carcasses of other males as a form of dominance, obtaining necessary information about the deceased and engaging in displacement behaviors; female herds have been observed to visit the carcasses of unrelated matriarchs or multiparous females, directly investigating the carcass (Douglas‐Hamilton et al .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Research from Sharma et al . (2019) pondered that an individual “migh” experience distress following the death of a conspecific but did not delve into a deeper definition of what this distress entails, and whether the deaths of different specific individuals elicit varied responses. Furthermore, elephants have been described as a “who animal,” suggesting that who dies, or rather the survivors’ relationship to the deceased, matters (Safina 2018, p. 65).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Personality and behavioral changes in Asian elephants (Elephas maximus) following the death of herd members

Rutherford

Murray

2020

Integr. Zool.

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Elephants are highly social beings with complex individual personalities. We know that elephants have a general interest in death, investigating carcasses, not just limited to kin; however, research does not explore in depth whether individuals change their behavior or personality following traumatic events, such as the death of a conspecific. Within a captive herd of Asian elephants (Elephas maximus) housed at Chester Zoo, UK, we measured social behavior and proximity and personality using the Ten‐Item Personality Inventory, and found age‐related and relationship‐related changes in both behavior and personality following the deaths of herd members. Overall, the herd spent less time socializing and engaging in affiliative behaviors following the death of the adult female when compared to baseline data, yet spent more time engaging in these behaviors after the death of two calves. The death of the central female had a dramatic impact on her infant calf, resulting in increasingly withdrawn behavior, yet had the opposite effect on her adult daughter, who subsequently established a more integrated role within the herd. Emotional Stability fell in the motherless calf but rose in an adult female, who had lost her adult daughter, but had a new calf to care for. We suggest that the greater impact on the behavior and personality of surviving herd members following the deaths of calves, compared to an adult member, attests to the significance of the unifying role played by calves within an elephant herd.

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Emotional contagion in nonhuman animals: A review

Pérez-Manrique

Gomila

2021

WIRES Cognitive Science

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Emotional contagion, the emotional state‐matching of an individual with another, seems to be crucial for many social species. In recent years evidence on emotional contagion in different animal species has accumulated. However, despite its adaptative advantages and its presumed simplicity, the study and direct demonstration of this phenomenon present more complexities than previously thought. For these reasons, a review of the literature on emotional contagion in nonhuman species is timely to integrate current findings. In this paper thus, we carry out a comprehensive review of the most relevant studies on emotional contagion in animals and discuss the main problems and challenges of the field. We conclude that more research is needed to broaden our understanding of the mechanisms and functions of emotional contagion and the extent to which this process is present in a wide variety of species. Furthermore, the comparative study of emotional contagion would benefit from the use of systematized paradigms including both behavioral and physiological measures and the simultaneous recording of the responses of the interacting individuals to reliably assess an emotional state‐matching between them and reliable controls. This article is categorized under: Cognitive Biology > Evolutionary Roots of Cognition Psychology > Comparative Psychology Psychology > Emotion and Motivation

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Behavioural responses of free-ranging Asian elephants (Elephas maximus) towards dying and dead conspecifics

Cited by 27 publications

References 28 publications

Effects of physiological changes and social life events on adrenal glucocorticoid activity in female zoo-housed Asian elephants (Elephas maximus)

Effects of physiological changes and social life events on adrenal glucocorticoid activity in female zoo-housed Asian elephants (Elephas maximus)

Personality and behavioral changes in Asian elephants (Elephas maximus) following the death of herd members

Emotional contagion in nonhuman animals: A review

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