Social structure and helping behavior in captive elephants

Abstract

Selective pressures on individual behavior serve to mold social structure and subsequent levels of cooperation in social species, including elephants. Adult Asian (Elephas maximus) and African (Loxodonta africana) elephants have complex social societies that differ markedly between the sexes. Elephant social structure and cooperative behavior may have evolved in part to prepare young elephants to meet the challenges of an expansive environment, predators and parasites. In captivity, such forces are relaxed or eliminated, yet captive elephants display a similar repertoire of behaviors as their wild counterparts. Elephants live in herds of related adult females from several generations. This female social unit is centered on calves and the matriarch. Adult males reside in bachelor herds, singly, or frequent female groups, depending on male age and reproductive condition. In captivity, female elephants are usually housed together, although group size is smaller than in the wild, whereas adult males are generally housed separately from other elephants. Beyond these general similarities between wild and captive settings, captive elephants are housed in a wider range of group sizes, degrees of relatedness, and age structures than would be typical in the wild. This variation in social structure can be used to explore questions about cooperative behavior. Following a comparison of wild and captive social structures for elephants, three such potential avenues for study are discussed. Specifically, research with captive elephants could shed light on the development of social behavior, the functional significance of allomothering, and the ability of elephants to recognize kin or social group members. Beside the potential theoretical implications and insight into wild elephant behavior, the examination of social behavior also has important ramifications for the management of animals in captivity. Zoo Biol 19:447–459, 2000. © 2000 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.

Gross morphometrical studies on the Skull, Atlas and Axis of Female Asiatic elephant (Elephas maximus): A Case Study

“…Moreover, they are long-lived, highly-social and large-brained animals [4,6]. They are distributed in Southeast Asia from India in the west to Borneo in the east.…”

Elephants know when they need a helping trunk in a cooperative task

“…20-23 for reviews). However, these animals are well-known for their complex sociality in nature (24)(25)(26)(27)(28)(29)(30) and their relatively large and complex brains (e.g., refs. [31][32][33][34][35].…”

“…[31][32][33][34][35]. African (the genus Loxodonta) and Asian elephants (24)(25)(26)(27)(28)(29)(30)36) live in closely bonded, female-centric family groups and display a wide range of other-directed, often cooperative behaviors that may be supported by specialized cognitive mechanisms (37,38). For example, elephants often act as allomothers toward each other's calves (39), assist distressed or immobilized family members by pulling or pushing them out of prostrate or otherwise dangerous positions (40,41), and form close, multi-individual coalitions to protect calves against predation (39,40).…”

Preserved brain of the Woolly mammoth (Mammuthus primigenius (Blumenbach 1799)) from the Yakutian permafrost

“…This family also includes genus of modern elephants Elephas (Linnaeus, 1758) and Loxodonta (Anonymous, 1827) (Maglio, 1973;Shoshani and Tassy, 2005). Modern elephants stand out from the other mammals in their longevity (Shoshani and Eisenberg, 1982), social structure with complicated group hierarchy, and communication (Langbauer, 2000;Schulte, 2000Schulte, , 2006. They have ability to use tools and demonstrate a range of complex learning skills and behavior (Chevalier-Skolnikoff and Liska, 1993;Hart et al, 2001).…”

“…Participation of the flood bog biotopes in the initial preservation of the mummified specimens from Siberian permafrost is suggested (Popov, 1959). The naturally mummified soft tissues are widely examined by anthropologists, including use of the histological technics and light and electron microscopy (Hess et al, 1998;Shin et al, 2003;Eklektos et al, 2006;Prats-Muñoz et al, 2012). The most common findings in anthropology are human mummies desiccated in arid conditions.…”