Matriarchs As Repositories of Social Knowledge in African Elephants
Karen McComb,12*
Cynthia Moss,2
Sarah M. Durant,3
Lucy Baker,12
Soila Sayialel2
Despite widespread interest in the evolution of social
intelligence, little is known about how wild animals acquire and store information about social companions or whether individuals possessing enhanced social knowledge derive biological fitness benefits. Using
playback experiments on African elephants (Loxodonta
africana), we demonstrated that the possession of enhanced
discriminatory abilities by the oldest individual in a group can
influence the social knowledge of the group as a whole. These superior
abilities for social discrimination may result in higher per capita
reproductive success for female groups led by older individuals. Our
findings imply that the removal of older, more experienced individuals, which are often targets for hunters because of their large size, could
have serious consequences for endangered populations of advanced social
mammals such as elephants and whales.
1 Experimental Psychology, School of
Biological Sciences, University of Sussex, Brighton BN1 9QG, UK.
2 Amboseli Elephant Research Project, African
Wildlife Foundation, Box 48177, Nairobi, Kenya.
3 Institute of Zoology, Zoological Society of
London, Regent's Park, London NW1 4RY, UK.
*
To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail:
karenm{at}biols.susx.ac.uk
