UC San Diego

Female African elephants live complex lives that revolve around hierarchical group living, and the alloparenting of calves. However, how a female's rank may in turn affect her use of social space has not been fully examined; nor how the introduction of a newborn can affect the mother's use of social space. We addressed these questions by observing the elephants at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park. By integrating a video-annotation program ChronoViz with the Anoto digital pens, we traced out the paths of the subjects. Using the data provided by the program, we were able to determine the following rank-based findings : (1) low ranked elephants are more reactive than high ranked elephants upon being approached, (2) high ranked elephants are more likely to demonstrate "TO" behavior towards low ranked approachers, rather than vice versa, (3) reactions occur at a greater distance when a low ranked elephant approached a high ranked elephant, rather than vice versa, and (4) behavioral responses within a hot spot area were not significantly different than responses outside a hot spot area. We were also able to observe the following about changes that occur with the mother once the calf was born: (1) an increase in the mother's reactivity upon being approached, (2) an increase in the mother's TO behavior, and (3) an increase in the distance at which a high ranked elephant would react to the approach of the mother. These findings suggest that not only rank, but also the presence of a newborn, affects the way female elephants use their social space