Social Disruption Impairs Predatory Threat Assessment in African Elephants.

ABSTRACT: The transmission of reliable information between individuals is crucial for group-living animals. This is particularly the case for cognitively advanced mammals with overlapping generations that acquire detailed social and ecological knowledge over long lifetimes. Here, we directly compare the ecological knowledge of elephants from two populations, with radically different developmental histories, to test whether profound social disruption affects their ability to assess predatory threat. Matriarchs (≤50 years of age) and their family groups received playbacks of three lions versus a single lion roaring. The family groups in the natural Amboseli population (Kenya) reliably assessed the greater predatory threat presented by three lions roaring versus one. However, in the socially disrupted

SUBMITTER: Shannon G 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8868390 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature