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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 (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 the citing paper
“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)
In the citing paper
“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)
In the citing paper
“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)
In the citing paper
“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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- Contact calls recorded from a total of 20 adult females all known individuals in the study population were used as playback stimuli. All recordings were made on digital audio tape using equipment specialized for low-frequency recording: a Sennheiser MKH 110 microphone linked to a Sony TCD D10 DAT recorder (with DC modification) or a HHb PortaDAT PDR 1000 DAT recorder. The system for playback was composed of a custom-built 6th-order bass box loudspeaker (Aylestone Cambridge UK) with two sound ports linked to a power amplifier [a Kenwood KAC-PS400M or amplifiers described in (9)] which had a lower frequency limit of 10 Hz and a response that was flat ± 4 dB from ∼15 Hz on one sound port and ∼20 Hz on the other. Each of 21 families of subjects received playbacks of contact calls from a mean of 8 different callers (range: 4 to 11) none of which were members of their own family unit or bond group. Calls were only played if the subjects were within their home range and had no calves of less than 1 month. Playbacks to the same family unit were always separated by at least 7 days and playbacks of callers of different association indices with the subjects were given in random order. In each playback a single contact call was played at peak sound pressure levels of 105 dB at 1 m (corresponding to the natural volume of a medium loud contact call) from a Landrover vehicle that was located 100 m from the subjects. The vehicle was positioned at right angles to the direct line of sight to the elephants and vocalizations were played through the rear door. Responses to playbacks were observed through binoculars and recorded on videotape. Out of a range of behaviors monitored during playback experiments two key behaviors were used to classify subjects' reactions in this study: (i) Bunching: scored as occurring if subjects bunched together into defensive formation so that the diameter (estimated in terms of elephant body lengths) of the whole group or of constituent subgroups decreased. (ii) Smelling: scored as occurring when any of the subjects used the tip of their trunk to smell in lowered mid- or raised positions.
- All statistical analyses were carried out with Genstat [R. W. Payne et al. GENSTAT 5 Reference Manual (Oxford Univ. Press Oxford 1987)].
- We thank the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council for providing the major funding for this work (grant no. 85/S07659 to K.M.). Additional financial support or equipment came from the African Wildlife Foundation; the Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour; Newnham College (Cambridge); the Natural Environment Research Council; the Nuffield Foundation; the Royal Society; the Tusk Trust; the University of Sussex; and the Institute of Zoology. We are grateful to the Kenyan Office of the President and to Kenya Wildlife Services for permission to conduct the work in Amboseli National Park; to the African Wildlife Foundation and P. B. Allen for logistical support; to K. Sayialel and N. Njiriana for assistance with fieldwork; and to P. Harvey G. Mace and D. Reby for comments on the manuscript.
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Metadata
- 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
- Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics › 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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