Meneses 1

Ashley Meneses
Writing 39C
Lynda Haas
7 August 2016
The Pack that Keeps Them Smart
Elephants are a well known species; Nevertheless, the social groups of these species is an
important aspect of them. Elephants are never alone, but always seem to be in a pack. The
mothers are either with their calves or there is a group of families within one pack. Because of
this, researchers have studied elephants and their social groups. The social groups of elephants
are very important in understanding their behaviors and interactions with each other and it also
proves their intelligence. Elephant scientific research has been around for a couple of years;
Furthermore, The Amboseli Elephant project came about in 1972 with researchers David
Western, Iain Douglas- Hamilton and Cynthia Moss.
Vance, Archie and Moss of the Amboseli Elephant Research Project published their
research on elephant social behavior in the article, Social Networks in African Elephants, in
which they explain that elephant social groups are based on the seasons. They explain, In the
dry season, social groups tend to be less cohesive and smaller during the wet season, families
often travel in intact groups, whole families often fuse with other families, and sometimes
hundreds of animals can be found together in one continuous aggregation (274). Elephants have
a fission-fusion system during the seasons. They explain, While most such social animals live in
groups with a stable composition, fission-fusion species live in labile societies where social
groups can divide into sub-groups or fuse with other groups over short periods of time (Vance
274). The fission goes on during the dry seasons when they travel in small groups and fuse in

Meneses 2
the wet seasons to create large groups. This ties into an elephants intelligence because they do
this to avoid competition.
The purpose of the experiment was to isolate factors that predict animal social behavior
(275). In 1983, researchers, Cynthia Moss and Joyce Poole, found that the reason why
elephants social groups change during the seasons is based on resources and decreasing
competition for them (275). This brings in the intelligence of elephants because it demonstrates
how they do this for survival. Elephants avoid having a lack of resources, so they fuse into big
groups when the resources are abundant. It is seen through many animals that survivorship is an
important aspect and which is why there is so much competition, so by elephants trying to avoid
resource competition, they are smart enough to minimize their social groups.
Vance, Archie and Moss also explain that another aspect of the social groups of elephants
is their kinship. In 2006, researchers at the Amboseli Project, found that kinship is an
evolutionary development of elephants (275). They grow up traveling in groups and not alone.
The fact that they grow up being in a family group shows how united they are. This evolutionary
development is another aspect of survivorship and demonstrates how smart they are. By traveling
in groups, elephants know that they are much safer than traveling alone. The study explains, As
a result, the costs and benefits of sociality can accumulate through both direct fitness (survival
advantage given to an individuals own offspring) and indirect fitness (advantage given to the
offspring of close genetic relatives). The research explains that by them traveling in groups
gives them survival advantage.
When conducting this research, researchers studied the family line to study the
relationships of kinships and seasonality. The image below demonstrates how researchers did a
pedigree to test if the behavior of the social groups of elephants is based on the genetic and

Meneses 3
evolutionary developments from the relatives. The image shows how they drew out the
relationships of the female elephants to each other. They tested the experiment on female
elephants because females are the most known for kinship. Not only are they most known for
kinship, but elephants have a matriarch, which is the leader of the group. In elephants, females
are the leaders of the groups.

In the article, The Ties that Bind, it shows that they tested in 2006 if the possibility that
one social group fuses with another is based on genetic relatedness. The article states,
Relatedness also predicted temporary fusion between social groups; core groups were more
likely to fuse with each other when the oldest females in each group were genetic relatives. One
reason that groups fuse and split is through genetic relatedness. Even though some elephants
became raised in a different group, they end up fusing with another group if they have some type
of genetic relatedness. Something else that they found when doing this research is that Groups
that shared mtDNA were also significantly more likely to fuse than groups that did not share
mtDNA. Therefore, the fission-fusion system that elephants have is mainly based on their
relatedness to each other. The graph below demonstrates the genetic relatedness of social groups.

Meneses 4

In the study, Association Patterns of African Elephants in All-male Groups, researcher,

Chiyo and his group, explain how the male-male bonds occur through genetic relatedness and
age (1093). The leaders of an elephant tribe are matriarchs, but this study experiments how all
male groups become a tribe. Throughout this experiment, the researchers collected data on the
sparring behavior in males during sightings of all-male groups and from 90 min focal group
(1094). The reason they did this was because they wanted to see how the elephants interacted
with each other based on age and relatedness. The results of the experiment demonstrated that
the males were close due to their genetic relatedness. This demonstrates the intelligence of an
elephant because it is much safer to interact with another species who has the same genetic
relatedness than one who does not.

Meneses 5

Elephants have a very good skill of recognizing each other. They recognize each other not
only through sight but also through sound. Zoologist, Iain Douglas-Hamilton that studies animal
behavior in elephants, explains, Each elephant in Amboseli probably knows every other adult in
the population. When researchers played the recorded call of an absent family member or bondgroup member, elephants returned the call and moved toward the sound (Safina 38). When
elephants recognize a familiar sound from their group, they follow the sound to go look for their
member. However, scientists also tested how they react when they do not recognize someone
from the group. Douglas-Hamilton explains, Played a recording of an elephant outside their
bond group, they didnt react noticeably. But when played calls of total strangers, they bunched
defensively, raising their trunks to smell. When there is an elephant that is not part of the group,
the group reacts to the sound and tries to find out where it is coming from.

Meneses 6
Elephants can some times be aggressive or defensive towards other groups. According
the study, Social Dominance, Seasonal Movements, and Spatial Segregation in African
Elephants, elephants there can be agonistic behaviors towards other groups at times; However,
it is very low. The study, which was performed in 2006, explains, Agonistic interactions occur
at very low frequency and between-group agonistic interactions occur as frequently in relation to
point resources as for social reasons not associated with any resource. This demonstrates how
elephants do not get competitive over resources because of the fission-fusion system that they
have, but they have agonistic interactions for interactive reasons. When there does occur
agonistic interactions, then transitive dominant hierarchies form. The article explains, Despite
being infrequent and often of little immediate benefit, agonistic interactions among elephants do
lead to the formation of transitive dominance hierarchies both within and between groups. This
does not bring in competition for resources, but more rivalry between groups. When the
hierarchies develop within groups, then it becomes more of a problem because then there is
somewhat competition for resources.
Researchers, Cynthia Moss, Iain Douglas- Hamilton, Eric Vance and Patrick Chiyo
showed through various studies and research the behaviors and causes of the social groups of
elephants. Elephants are very intelligent animals that travel in groups for survivorship. The
fission-fusion system is also a smart survivorship technique that they carry. Traveling in social
groups keeps them safe from predators because they warn each other of danger. There is still
current research on elephants going on today. These studies from these scientists were from wild
elephants; However, there may be other factors that may impact their intelligence or social
groups such as human behavior.

Meneses 7

Bibliography
Archie, E. A., C. J. Moss, and S. C. Alberts. "The Ties That Bind: Genetic Relatedness Predicts
the Fission and Fusion of Social Groups in Wild African Elephants." Proceedings of the
Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 273.1586 (2006): 513-22. Web.
Chiyo, Patrick I., Elizabeth A. Archie, Julie A. Hollister-Smith, Phyllis C. Lee, Joyce H. Poole,
Cynthia J. Moss, and Susan C. Alberts. "Association Patterns of African Elephants in Allmale Groups: The Role of Age and Genetic Relatedness." Animal Behaviour 81.6 (2011):
1093-099. Print.
Inglett, Kelleen Leann. "The Use of Social Space with Respect to Rank : A Look into Female
African Elephant Behavior (Loxodonta Africana)." International Journal of Comparative
Psychology : 266-310. Web.
Journal of the Royal Society of Arts, Vol. 57, No. 2943 (APRIL 16, 1909), pp. 436- 440

Meneses 8
Polansky, Leo, Iain Douglas-Hamilton, and George Wittemyer. "Using Diel Movement Behavior
to Infer Foraging Strategies Related to Ecological and Social Factors in Elephants."
Movement Ecology Mov Ecol 1.1 (2013): 13. Web.
Safina, Carl. Beyond Words: What Animals Think and Feel. New York, NY: Henry Holt, 2015.
Print
Vance, Eric A., Archie, Elizabeth A., and Cynthia J. Moss. "Social Networks in African
Elephants." Computational and Mathematical Organization Theory 15.4 (2008): 273-93.
Web.
Wittemyer, G., W. M. Getz, F. Vollrath, and I. Douglas-Hamilton. "Social Dominance, Seasonal
Movements, and Spatial Segregation in African Elephants: A Contribution to
Conservation Behavior." Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology Behav Ecol Sociobiol
61.12 (2007): 1919-931. Web.