Social relationships of wild juvenile Asian Elephants Elephas maximus in the Udawalawa National Park, Sri Lanka

Deepani Jayantha,U.K.G.K Padmalal,P.N Dayawansa,W.D Ratnasooriya

doi:10.11609/jott.o1831.211-4

Abstract

Social relationships of juvenile wild elephants (3-6 years old) in the Udawalawa National Park were studied. Focal animal sampling was employed to quantify behaviour of juveniles encountered on 450 different occasions. Nearest neighbour (NN) and nearest neighbour distance (NND) were considered for proximity analysis and the social relationships of focal animals. Adult females and juveniles were the NN of the study group during 50.8% and 37.6% of the total observed time respectively. The mean NND was 1.62m (SDï¿½ plus or minus 2.8), and it was less than 5m 98% of the time while 33% of the time the study group was touching (NND

Highlights

Social interactions and relationships among elephants are maintained by communication, interactive behaviour and proximity (Garai 1997; Sukumar 2003)
Social play allows juvenile elephants to understand coping strategies, practice their abilities and learn their position in the hierarchy, which all contribute to a long-term learning process (Garai & Kurt 2006)
Sub adult females and sub adult males were the Nearest neighbour (NN) of the focal group nearly at the same frequencies, 4.2% and 4.0% respectively

Summary

Introduction

Social interactions and relationships among elephants are maintained by communication, interactive behaviour and proximity (Garai 1997; Sukumar 2003). Young elephants spend several years in physical and behavioural development, and the diverse behaviours exhibited by adult elephants reflect this long history of social interaction and learning (Sukumar 2003). Social play allows juvenile elephants to understand coping strategies, practice their abilities and learn their position in the hierarchy (especially males), which all contribute to a long-term learning process (Garai & Kurt 2006). Female juveniles are interested in younger siblings and demonstrate allomothering behaviour frequently (Moss 1988). This behaviour is necessary for the growing female to acquire mothering skills that contribute to adult life (Morris 1990), as experienced females tend to have high offspring survival rates (Garai & Kurt 2006)

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion