Consistency and flexibility of character in free-ranging male African elephants across time, age, and social contexts.

ABSTRACT: Post-dispersal male African elephants (Loxodonta africana) live within complex social networks. To quantify the consistency of male elephant character (or personality) within these networks, we employed behavioral repeatability analysis tools across social and environmental contexts. We collected behavioral data from thirty-four individually-identified male elephants at the same waterhole over five field seasons (2007-2011) in Etosha National Park, Namibia. Using repeatability models to assess ten behavioral categories, we found five behaviors (affiliation, aggression, dominance, self-directed anxious, and self-directed comfort) were consistent at the individual level. Some of these behaviors were also repeatable, depending on social context. In particular, the presence of younger males an

SUBMITTER: O'Connell-Rodwell CE 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11616828 | biostudies-literature | 2024

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature