Orphaned elephants still lack social knowledge
Human activities such as elephant culling and relocation in the 1980s continue to have a negative impact on the communication skills and social understanding of survivors. This is according to new research by psychologists at the University of Sussex.
Research was carried out on two elephant populations, one being those in Pilanesberg National Park in South Africa, who were introduced as orphans during the 1980s and 90s following management culls of adult and older juvenile animals in Kruger National Park. This group was compared with a relatively undisturbed population in Amboseli National Park in Kenya.
A series of cutting-edge experiments were carried out, which involved playing elephant vocalisations to families in each population and studying their reactions.
Elephants in both groups were played a set of familiar and unfamiliar calls, as well as 50 different recorded sounds which simulated calls from elephants of varying ages and sizes.
Researchers used four key behaviours to measure their responses, including defensive bunching, intensity of the bunching response, prolonged listening and investigative smelling.
According to the research, which has been published in the journal Frontiers in Zoology, the Amboseli elephants were more able to recognise the threat of alien elephants.
In addition, researchers found that these elephants were more defensive and attentive to the simulated calls of older elephants, who are more socially dominant, suggesting they could distinguish between calls from elephants of different ages and identify the level of threat posed.
Responding to more dominant individuals appropriately is key to success within complex social groups such as the elephant population, according to psychologists.
Researchers say the Pilanesberg population showed no such abilities to identify these differences.
Co-author Professor McComb commented: "While elephants in the wild can appear to recover [from social disruption], apparently forming quite stable groups, our study was able to reveal that important decision-making abilities that are likely to impact on key aspects of the elephant’s social behaviour may be seriously impaired in the long run."
These findings have implications for the management of elephants, both in the wild and in captivity, added co-author Dr Shannon, and could also be relevant to the welfare and conservation of other long-lived social species, such as primates, whales and dolphins.
The BSAVA has opened submissions for the BSAVA Clinical Research Abstracts 2026.
