Group size differences may mask underlying similarities in social structure: a comparison of female elephant societies

Nandini, S.; Keerthipriya, P.; Vidya, T. N. C.

doi:10.1093/beheco/arx135

Cited by 32 publications

(52 citation statements)

References 58 publications

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“…2011). Interestingly, our study found frequent within-clan agonism which would seem surprising since there is flexibility in associations among females in the Kabini population (Nandini et al . 2017, 2018).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 58%

“…2018). Female groups are usually subsets of clans, which are the most inclusive female social units, and within which associations are fluid, showing fission-fusion dynamics (Nandini et al . 2017, 2018).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…2018). Females within clans show fission-fusion dynamics, in which clan-members are usually distributed across multiple groups, whose group compositions can change across hours (Nandini et al . 2017, 2018).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Stronger between-clan than within-clan contests and their ecological correlates in a non-territorial, fission-fusion species, the Asian elephant

Gautam

Vidya

2019

Preprint

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2Socioecological theory, which attributes variation in social organization in female-bonded 3 species to differences in within-and between-group feeding competition shaped by food 4 distribution, remains largely unexplored in non-primate species. In the first such attempt on a 5 non-primate mammal, we studied the patterns of agonistic contests within-and between-6 clans (the most inclusive social unit) of female Asian elephants with respect to food 7 distribution, food abundance, and competitor density effects of group size and clan density. 8 We directly quantified the distribution of grass biomass in different stretches of a grassland 9 habitat around the Kabini backwaters, as well as the adjacent forest habitat, in Nagarahole 10 National Park, southern India. We also quantified agonistic interactions among adult females 11 in the grassland habitat to obtain rates of individual-level within-clan and between-clan 12 agonism, and clan-level between-clan encounters. The occurrence of more frequent between-13 clan encounters in contrast to what was known from forest habitats, and stronger individual-14 level between-clan agonism than within-clan agonism was consistent with the grassland 15 being a food-rich habitat patch as compared to the adjacent forest, as expected from 16 socioecological theory. Within-clan agonism was not influenced by grass abundance or 17 distribution within the grassland habitat, in contradiction to classic socioecological 18 predictions, but interestingly increased with female group size until a group size of five, 19 suggesting that the opposing forces of within-group and between-group competition may 20 govern group size, as large group size is advantageous in this strong between-clan contest 21 regime. The rate of (clan-level) between-clan agonistic encounters was positively explained 22 by the number of clans. Although the rate of between-clan encounters was not related to grass 23 biomass in focal zones, the duration of such encounters was positively related to grass 24 biomass at the site of contest. We discuss contest competition in female elephant societies in 25 the context of socioecological theory. 1 2

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 58%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Stronger between-clan than within-clan contests and their ecological correlates in a non-territorial, fission-fusion species, the Asian elephant

Gautam

Vidya

2019

Preprint

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“…Conflicts occur in all elephant range states, and Elliza et al (2015) showed that samples belong to these states as well as that high gene flow between elephants from outside and within TNNP is possible. Elephants are from matriarchal families (Nandini et al 2018), and the percentage of matching haplotypes among these individuals would be high. Anthropogenic disturbances such as deforestation and wildlife habitat loss would increase human-elephant conflict indirectly thus promoting elephant translocation.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Genetic variations among selected wild Asian elephant populations in Peninsular Malaysia based on mitochondrial D-loop region DNA sequences

Karuppannan¹,

Rahman

Mohamed³

et al. 2019

Biodiversitas

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Abstract. Karuppannan KV, Aifat NR, Mohamed KA, Ahmad-Tahir NFD, Nordin FM, Yaakop S, Maldonado JE, Md-Zain BM. 2019. Genetic variations among selected wild Asian elephant populations in Peninsular Malaysia based on mitochondrial D-loop region DNA sequences. Biodiversitas 20: 2494-2502. Asian elephant (Elephas maximus) is an important large mammal in Peninsular Malaysia and is completely protected by the Wildlife Conservation Act 2010 (Act 716). The conservation of this species requires strong information-based research, such as genetic evaluations. The aim of this study was to compare mitochondrial control region variation among selected elephants from the Taman Negara National Parks (TNNP) population with other selected populations in Peninsular Malaysia. DNA materials were extracted from fecal samples and amplified using partial mitochondrial D-loop region. Total 13 haplotypes with haplotype diversity (Hd) of 0.7524 were observed. A total of 34 base pair (bp) segregation sites were formed in 547 bp sequences. Both phylogenetic trees showed that a few individual elephants from the TNNP formed a clade together with individuals from other populations. The remaining individual elephants from TNNP formed a monophyletic clade supported by a high bootstrap value. Low genetic distance was detected among the tested populations, which proved that both individuals from the TNNP and other selected populations have similar genetic patterns. High gene flow among tested populations would impact on fitness and long-term resilience of the populations. This highly significant outcome provides strong baseline data for Department of Wildlife and National Parks (DWNP) in monitoring elephant populations in order to reduce number of human-elephant conflicts which indirectly minimize translocating conflict elephants to TNNP.

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“…This is especially true in the case of elephants, which have well-defined growth phases 11,12 and sex-specific life-history strategies (reviewed in 13 ). Elephants live in mixed-sex social units termed as families, bond-groups or clans 13–16 . Changes in the sociality of male Asian elephants is pronounced between 11 and 20 years, as adolescent males disperse from their natal herds transitioning into socially mature adults.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

All-Male Groups in Asian Elephants: A Novel, Adaptive Social Strategy in Increasingly Anthropogenic Landscapes of Southern India

Srinivasaiah

Kumar²,

Vaidyanathan³

et al. 2019

Sci Rep

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Male Asian elephants are known to adopt a high-risk high-gain foraging strategy by venturing into agricultural areas and feeding on nutritious crops in order to improve their reproductive fitness. We hypothesised that the high risks to survival posed by increasingly urbanising and often unpredictable production landscapes may necessitate the emergence of behavioural strategies that allow male elephants to persist in such landscapes. Using 1445 photographic records of 248 uniquely identified male Asian elephants over a 23-month period, we show that male Asian elephants display striking emergent behaviour, particularly the formation of stable, long-term all-male groups, typically in non-forested or human-modified and highly fragmented areas. They remained solitary or associated in mixed-sex groups, however, within forested habitats. These novel, large all-male associations, may constitute a unique life history strategy for male elephants in the high-risk but resource-rich production landscapes of southern India. This may be especially true for the adolescent males, which seemed to effectively improve their body condition by increasingly exploiting anthropogenic resources when in all-male groups. This observation further supports our hypothesis that such emergent behaviours are likely to constitute an adaptive strategy for male Asian elephants that may be forced to increasingly confront anthropogenically intrusive environments.

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Group size differences may mask underlying similarities in social structure: a comparison of female elephant societies

Cited by 32 publications

References 58 publications

Stronger between-clan than within-clan contests and their ecological correlates in a non-territorial, fission-fusion species, the Asian elephant

Stronger between-clan than within-clan contests and their ecological correlates in a non-territorial, fission-fusion species, the Asian elephant

Genetic variations among selected wild Asian elephant populations in Peninsular Malaysia based on mitochondrial D-loop region DNA sequences

All-Male Groups in Asian Elephants: A Novel, Adaptive Social Strategy in Increasingly Anthropogenic Landscapes of Southern India

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