Matriarchs As Repositories of Social Knowledge in African Elephants
Abstract
Despite widespread interest in the evolution of social intelligence, little is known about how wild animals acquire and store information about social companions or whether individuals possessing enhanced social knowledge derive biological fitness benefits. Using playback experiments on African elephants ( Loxodonta africana ), we demonstrated that the possession of enhanced discriminatory abilities by the oldest individual in a group can influence the social knowledge of the group as a whole. These superior abilities for social discrimination may result in higher per capita reproductive success for female groups led by older individuals. Our findings imply that the removal of older, more experienced individuals, which are often targets for hunters because of their large size, could have serious consequences for endangered populations of advanced social mammals such as elephants and whales.
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In wild African elephants, the eldest, largest, and most dominant females in each family group play an important role.
“In wild African elephants, the eldest, largest, and most dominant females in each family group play an important role (McComb et al., 2001).”
From Characteristics of social relationships in a group of captive Asian elephants (Elephas maximus) in the elephant village in Thailand (2022) · cites this paper as McComb et al., 2001
In field experiments, older matriarchs performed better than younger ones at discriminating between the contact calls of familiar and unfamiliar individuals.
“In field experiments, older matriarchs performed better than younger ones at discriminating between the contact calls of familiar and unfamiliar individuals.”
From Elephant cognition. (2008) · cites this paper as McComb, K., Moss, C., Durant, S.M., Baker, L., and Sayialel, S. (2001)
Adult female elephants must be familiar with the vocalizations of at least 100 other females.
“they calculated that adult females must be familiar with the vocalizations of at least 100 other females”
From Elephant cognition. (2008) · cites this paper as McComb, K., Moss, C., Durant, S.M., Baker, L., and Sayialel, S. (2001)
Female elephants distinguish calls made by family and bond group members from those made by unrelated individuals.
“the researchers showed that female elephants distinguish calls made by family and bond group members from those made by unrelated individuals.”
From Elephant cognition. (2008) · cites this paper as McComb, K., Moss, C., Durant, S.M., Baker, L., and Sayialel, S. (2001)
Older matriarchs have a greater ability to discriminate and change behavior based on familiarity with other groups, and more social and environmental knowledge.
“This suggests that older matriarchs have a greater ability to discriminate and change their behavior as a function of familiarity with other groups of elephants”
From Do elephants really never forget? What we know about elephant memory and a call for further investigation (2025) · cites this paper as McComb et al., 2001
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- Authors
- McComb, K., Moss, C., Durant, S. M., Baker, L., & Sayialel, S.
- Affiliations
- African Wildlife Foundation (KE)
- Zoological Society of London (GB)
- Corresponding author
- McComb, Karen
- Venue
- Science
- Published
- 2001-04-20
- Volume
- 292
- Issue
- 5516
- Pages
- 491-494
- ISSN
- 0036-8075 (ISSN-L)
- 1095-9203
- OpenAlex
- W1964169699
- Cited by
- 651
- References
- 12
- Citations by year
- 2026: 21 · 2025: 27 · 2024: 34 · 2023: 29 · 2022: 32 · 2021: 35 · 2020: 41 · 2019: 42 · 2018: 21 · 2017: 30 · 2016: 29 · 2015: 32 · 2014: 23 · 2013: 20 · 2012: 19
- FWCI
- 20.26
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Science (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Primate Behavior and Ecology
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Ecology › Marine animal studies overview
- Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics › Animal Behavior and Reproduction
- Keywords
- Loxodonta africana, matriarchs, social knowledge, social discrimination, social learning, reproductive success, age and experience, playback experiments, threatened species, social intelligence
- MeSH terms
- Aging, Animals, Behavior, Animal, Conservation of Natural Resources, Discrimination, Psychological, Elephants, Biological Evolution, Exploratory Behavior, Female, Kenya, Reproduction, Social Behavior, Vocalization, Animal
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Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
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