Male Social Dynamics: Independence and Beyond
Abstract
Male elephants interact frequently with other elephants. Young males face feeding competition from females and other males, and all males compete over access to females. Rates of aggression among mature adult males tend to be high. Competition obviously affects male grouping and associations, which are explored further in this chapter. This chapter first addresses how young, sexually active, non-musth males associate with other elephants and then discusses how being an older musth male affects sociality. Early in life, males have high energy costs due to growth and a high rate of mortality; with age, the growth costs diminish, but competitive costs increase. The chapter explores social dynamics from a developmental perspective—as a process of long duration—and with respect to the attainment of full socio-sexual functioning.
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Male elephants remain with their family group until sexual maturity, when they disperse.
“Males differ in that they remain with their family group until sexual maturity, when they disperse”
From Continuing challenges of elephant captivity: the captive environment, health issues, and welfare implications (2024) · cites this paper as Lee et al., 2011
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Chiyo, P. I., Archie, E. A., Hollister‐Smith, J. A., Lee, P. C., Poole, J. H., Moss, C. J., & Alberts, S. C. (2011) · Animal Behaviour · doi:10.1016/j.anbehav.2011.02.013 · Cited by 144 · see citing works
“…associated frequently with males in the 30þ year age range, but males in the 10e19 age class did so less frequently, presumably becausemales 10e19 years of age spent less time in all-male groups andmore time in mixed groups or with their families (Poole 1982; Evans & Harris 2008; Lee et al. 2011).”
BackgroundInfluentialSelf-citationChiyo, P. I., Moss, C. J., & Alberts, S. C. (2012) · PLoS ONE · doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0031382 · Cited by 106 · see citing works
“Age classes 10–14 years, and 15–19 years correspond to early and late dispersal phases respectively [39], age class 20–30 years corresponds to the initiation of first musth, age class 31–44 corresponds to a period of rapid ascent in reproductive potential and ages 45+ years corresponds to the age of attainment of a pe…”
BackgroundSelf-citationArchie, E. A., & Chiyo, P. I. (2011) · Molecular Ecology · doi:10.1111/j.1365-294x.2011.05237.x · Cited by 101 · see citing works
“Bonds between males are predictable but weak (Chiyo et al. 2011a; Lee et al. 2011).”
BackgroundNo risk, no gain: effects of crop raiding and genetic diversity on body size in male elephants
Chiyo, P. I., Lee, P. C., Moss, C. J., Archie, E. A., Hollister‐Smith, J. A., & Alberts, S. C. (2011) · Behavioral Ecology · doi:10.1093/beheco/arr016 · Cited by 94 · see citing works
“First, their age at the onset of musth, the physiological state of heightened sexual and aggressive behavior, will be younger for larger males resulting in a longer breeding lifespan (Lee et al. 2011).”
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Hill, C. M. (2018) · Annual Review of Anthropology · doi:10.1146/annurev-anthro-102317-050022 · Cited by 83 · see citing works
“Additionally, larger body size confers reproductive advantages on male elephants – they experience early onset of musth (Lee et al. 2011), and longer periods of musth, meaning they have a longer reproductive lifespan than their smaller peers.”
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“…values were unlikely to have arisen by chance, they were nevertheless very weak relative to those found in female African or Asian elephants, Elephas maximus (de Silva & Wittemyer, 2012), perhaps a manifestation of the lower level of sociality in males (Chiyo et al., 2011; Lee et al., 2011).”
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“Although males are thought to make the transition from life in their natal group to independence between 10 and 19 years of age (Lee et al. 2011), the lower level of stability in network centrality we found for males between 20 and 30 years suggest that males continue to adapt their behavior well…”
InfluentialChiyo, P. I., Grieneisen, L., Wittemyer, G., Moss, C. J., Lee, P. C., Douglas‐Hamilton, I., & Archie, E. A. (2014) · PLoS ONE · doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0093408 · Cited by 43 · see citing works
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Chiyo, P. I., Wilson, J. W., Archie, E. A., Lee, P. C., Moss, C. J., & Alberts, S. C. (2014) · Behavioral Ecology · doi:10.1093/beheco/aru152 · Cited by 37 · see citing works
Male African elephants (Loxodonta africana) queue when the stakes are high
O'Connell‐Rodwell, C. E., WOOD, J. D., Kinzley, C., Rodwell, T. C., Alarcón, C. N., Wasser, S. K., & Sapolsky, R. M. (2011) · Ethology Ecology & Evolution · doi:10.1080/03949370.2011.598569 · Cited by 29 · see citing works
“2006; WITTEMYER & GETZ 2007), little is known about the dynamics of dominance hierarchies in all-male elephant groups outside the context of reproduction (POOLE 1982; PAYNE 2003; LEE et al. 2011).”
BackgroundInfluentialMusth and its effects on male–male and male–female associations in Asian elephants
Keerthipriya, P., Nandini, S., Gautam, H., Revathe, T., & Vidya, T. N. C. (2019) · Journal of Mammalogy · doi:10.1093/jmammal/gyz190 · Cited by 28 · see citing works
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“Sex-biased dispersal in elephants does not lead to the complete separation of male and female relatives 11,32 .”
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“The transition to independence in African elephants is gradual, normally taking one to four years, but can take longer [52,53], and so the separation experienced by the three released males was abrupt.”
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“African savanna elephant males disperse from their natal groups ( Lee et al., 2011 ) and mature males have been previously thought to live mostly solitary lives.”
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“However, as older adult males have heterogenous association patterns with only a few preferred associates (Lee et al. 2011), exclusion of younger elephants from random networks have likely a greater impact on the expected variation of their associations; although at present this remains a speculation to be further exa…”
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“A more complex picture develops though, as in two studies clustering occurred amongst individuals close in age and individuals of similar age tended to associate with one another (Lee et al. 2011, Chiyo et al. 2012).”
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“While female elephants live in family groups composed of related adult females and their offspring, males disperse from their natal family group at an average age of 14 years (Lee et al., 2011 ).”
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“Other reports revealed that young and independent male elephants associate with older males to learn and acquire social behaviors from them and reduce mortality risk (Lee & Moss 1999; O’Connell -Rodwell 2010; Lee et al. 2011).”
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“…elephant mortality is common (Moss, 2001, Leggett, 2006, Foley et al., 2008, Trimble et al., 2009, Lee and Moss, 2011, Moss et al., 2011), whereas adult elephant are thought to be buffered against drought-induced mortality (Gaillard et al., 2000, Young and Van Aarde, 2010, Lee et al., 2011a).”
BackgroundResultInfluentialCaptive elephants and cetaceans
Marino, L., Doyle, C., Rally, H., O’Brien, L., & Jacobs, B. (2025) · Mètode: Revista de difusió de la investigació de la Universitat de Valencia · doi:10.7203/metode.16.29118
- Authors
- Lee, P. C., Poole, J. H., Njiraini, N., Sayialel, C. N., & Moss, C. J.
- Venue
- The Amboseli Elephants
- Publisher
- University of Chicago Press
- Published
- 2011
- Pages
- 260-271
- OpenAlex
- W2501761850
- Cited by
- 46
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2025: 3 · 2024: 4 · 2022: 6 · 2021: 6 · 2020: 2 · 2019: 4 · 2018: 4 · 2017: 3 · 2016: 3 · 2014: 3 · 2013: 1 · 2012: 3
- FWCI
- 11.06
- Type
- book chapter
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- University of Chicago Press eBooks (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics › Animal Behavior and Reproduction
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Primate Behavior and Ecology
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Ecology › Wildlife Ecology and Conservation
- Keywords
- male-male competition, musth, sexual selection, aggression, social associations, feeding competition
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