Age‐based variation in calf independence, social behavior and play in a captive population of African elephant calves

Abstract

African elephant calves are highly social and their behavioral development depends heavily on interactions with other elephants. Evaluating early social behaviors offers important information that can inform management decisions and maximize individual‐ and population‐level welfare. We use data collected from the population of elephants at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park in Escondido, CA to evaluate developmental trajectories of spatial independence and social behavior in nine elephant calves across a range of ages. As calves aged, the probability of being further from mothers also increased. Tactile interactions were common among calves, with all individuals either initiating or receiving physical touches from other elephants in a large proportion of focal scans. While the probability of initiating tactile interactions tended to decline with increases in calf age, the probability of receiving tactile interactions from other elephants remained invariant with regard to this variable. The social play was also common, occurring in a fifth of all focal scans. While there was evidence that social play tended to decline with increases in calf age, results suggest additional factors may be useful in characterizing patterns in play behavior at the individual level. Calves most frequently engaged in play with individuals of similar age but showed substantial variation in play partner choice. Results of this study suggest that maintaining groups of elephants in captivity with diverse age structure positively contribute to their healthy social development.

Differences in Mother–Infant Bond and Social Behavior of African Elephant Calves Living In Situ and Ex Situ

“…Calves in zoos possibly undergo the same developmental stages and are described by Andrews et al [11], Webber [12], and Freeman et al [13]. However, social constellations are different from the wild, and zoo family units are not necessarily related, as in the wild.…”

“…If zoos continue to breed elephants to generate a self-sustaining population-which is necessary, as the import of wild elephants is considered outdated [23]-it needs to be ensured by ethological research that the elephants bred and socialized there show (social) behavior that does not indicate a negative impact on their wellbeing. Social interactions and touch in captive elephant calves are highly relevant during early development and are associated with prosocial behavior and elephant welfare [13]. Therefore, falsifying hypothesis two is essential as this is reassuring for the ex situ breeding program which seeks to establish an independent stock of zoo elephants living under the best welfare conditions [19].…”

Dynamics of male African elephant character durability across time and social contexts

“…For example, a behavior such as retreat might be more contextually dependent as it is often a response to aggression behaviors directed towards the focal subject. Similarly, play behaviors often decline with age in male elephants [25,70] and are likely most often initiated by and dependent on the presence of younger individuals [25,71]. For all repeatable behaviors, a large proportion of the variance was unexplained, suggesting several other factors are likely contributing to aspects of behavioral consistency and flexibility in male elephants.…”