Effects of male age and female presence on male associations in a large, polygynous mammal in Southern India: the Asian elephant
Open accessAbstract
We present a detailed study of male associations in the Asian elephant, using 6 years of data on identified, non-musth males. Adult males spent greater proportions of their time solitarily than in mixed-sex or in all-male groups. Old (over 30 years) males were sighted more frequently with their age-peers and less frequently with young (15–30 years) males than expected at random in all-male groups. Young males were not sighted more frequently with old males than with young males, and did not disproportionately initiate associations with old males. These results suggest that male associations, in the absence of females, may allow for old non-musth males to test strengths against age-peers. Social learning from older individuals did not seem to be important in male associations, unlike that observed in the African savannah elephant. We also found a constraint on the sizes of all-male groups, similar to that seen in female groups in our study population, and all-male groups were rarer and smaller than those in African savannah elephant. Although male associations were weak, most males had a significant top associate, with whom their association was the strongest, in female absence. In mixed-sex groups, male associations occurred at random, suggesting that males were tracking female groups independently. Differences in male social organization from that of the related African savannah elephant that occupies a similar niche possibly arise from differences in ecology.
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Adult male elephants alternate time spent alone, in mixed-sex groups, and in male groups, albeit with weaker social bonds than those of females.
“These findings support the idea that adult males alternate time spent alone, in mixed-sex groups, and in male groups, albeit with weaker social bonds than those of females [18–20].”
From Socializing a group of male Asian elephants in a semi-captive facility in Lao PDR (2025) · cites this paper as [19]
The ‘Proportions of Time Spent in All-Male and Mixed-Sex Groups’ section describes solitary sightings and reports time spent in both group types by non-musth males. The Introduction says adult males associate temporarily with other males or female groups. Our copy does not compare the strength of males’ social bonds with females’ bonds, so that part of the claim is unsupported. (LLM, conf=0.84)
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LaDue, C. A., Vandercone, R. P. G., Kiso, W. K., & Freeman, E. W. (2022) · Animals · doi:10.3390/ani12091215 · Cited by 26 · see citing works
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Socializing a group of male Asian elephants in a semi-captive facility in Lao PDR
López Pérez, A. B., Brown, J. L., Goldenberg, S. Z., Rey, A., & Khonmee, J. (2025) · PLOS One · doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0332944 · Cited by 2 · see citing works
“The amount of time that wild males spend alone or with conspecifics depends on various factors, including age and reproductive state [18,19,21,22], forage abundance, kin relationships [14], and human activities [16].”
- Authors
- Keerthipriya, P., Nandini, S., & Vidya, T. N. C.
- Affiliations
- Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research (IN)
- Corresponding author
- Vidya, T. N. C.
- Venue
- Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution
- Publisher
- Frontiers Media SA
- Published
- 2021-06-07
- Volume
- 9
- ISSN
- 2296-701X (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W3169672176
- Cited by
- 27
- References
- 79
- Citations by year
- 2026: 3 · 2025: 7 · 2024: 4 · 2023: 3 · 2022: 6 · 2021: 3 · 2019: 1
- FWCI
- 3.93
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- Funders
- National Geographic Society (#8719-09, 9378-13)
- Department of Biotechnology, Ministry of Science and Technology, India (BT/ INF/22/SP27679/2018)
- Department of Science and Technology, Ministry of Science and Technology, India (12-09-2018, SR/S2/RJN-25/2007, BT/INF/22/SP27679/2018)
- Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, India (No. 37(1375)/09/EMR-II, 09/733(0152)/2011-EMR-I, 37(1375)/09/EMR-II, )/13/EMR-II, 37(1613)/13/EMR‐II)
- Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research (BT/INF/22/SP27679/2018)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Primate Behavior and Ecology
- Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics › Animal Behavior and Reproduction
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Ecology › Wildlife Ecology and Conservation
- Keywords
- Asian elephant, all-male groups, social organization, age structure, polygyny, social learning, musth, African savannah elephant, group size, mixed-sex groups
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