Why Do African Elephants (Loxodonta africana) Simulate Oestrus? An Analysis of Longitudinal Data

Abstract

Female African elephants signal oestrus via chemicals in their urine, but they also exhibit characteristic changes to their posture, gait and behaviour when sexually receptive. Free-ranging females visually signal receptivity by holding their heads and tails high, walking with an exaggerated gait, and displaying increased tactile behaviour towards males. Parous females occasionally exhibit these visual signals at times when they are thought not to be cycling and without attracting interest from musth males. Using demographic and behavioural records spanning a continuous 28-year period, we investigated the occurrence of this “simulated” oestrus behaviour. We show that parous females in the Amboseli elephant population do simulate receptive oestrus behaviours, and this false oestrus occurs disproportionately in the presence of naïve female kin who are observed coming into oestrus for the first time. We compare several alternative hypotheses for the occurrence of this simulation: 1) false oestrus has no functional purpose (e.g., it merely results from abnormal hormonal changes); 2) false oestrus increases the reproductive success of the simulating female, by inducing sexual receptivity; and 3) false oestrus increases the inclusive fitness of the simulating female, either by increasing the access of related females to suitable males, or by encouraging appropriate oestrus behaviours from female relatives who are not responding correctly to males. Although the observed data do not fully conform to the predictions of any of these hypotheses, we rule out the first two, and tentatively suggest that parous females most likely exhibit false oestrus behaviours in order to demonstrate to naïve relatives at whom to direct their behaviour.

Demonstration and Pantomime in the Evolution of Teaching

“…A possible example of demonstration in non-human animals is presented by Bates et al (2010) . African female elephants occasionally simulate oestrus when pregnant or lactating.…”

The Origins of Pedagogy: Developmental and Evolutionary Perspectives

“…Furthermore, the follower takes a more efficient path home, suggesting that tandem running not only facilitates the outbound journey, but results in learning the location of the food source with respect to the nest. Other examples include the teaching of food calls in pied-babblers (Raihani and Ridley, 2008), and putative evidence in several other taxa (elephants [ Loxodonta africana ], Bates et al, 2010; tamarins [ Saguinus oedipus ], Humle and Snowdon, 2008; see Byrne and Rapaport, 2011).…”

Concentration‐dependent chemosensory responses towards pheromones are influenced by receiver attributes in Asian elephants

“…This may indicate that Z 7‐12:Ac is mostly irrelevant to females, possibly because intrasexual competition is presumably low (de Silva, Schmid, & Wittemyer, ). Still, personal observations indicate that female Asian elephants in the wild and even some unrelated females in captivity exhibit excitement behaviours while conspecifics are breeding, like those described among female African elephants (Bates et al., ). Furthermore, Slade‐Cain et al.…”

“…Still, personal observations indicate that female Asian elephants in the wild and even some unrelated females in captivity exhibit excitement behaviours while conspecifics are breeding, like those described among female African elephants (Bates et al, 2010).…”