Differences in Mother–Infant Bond and Social Behavior of African Elephant Calves Living In Situ and Ex Situ
Abstract
:Simple Summary
Abstract
1. Introduction
2. Material and Methods
2.1. Animals
2.2. Ethological Data Collection
2.3. Data Analysis
3. Results
3.1. Distance to Mother
3.2. General Behavior
3.3. Social Behavior
4. Discussion
5. Conclusions
Author Contributions
Funding
Institutional Review Board Statement
Informed Consent Statement
Data Availability Statement
Acknowledgments
Conflicts of Interest
References
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Age | Development |
0–6 months |
|
7–12 months |
|
13–24 months |
|
25–36 months |
|
37–48 months |
|
49–60 months |
|
60-plus months |
|
Generation/Origin | Elephant | Sex | Year of Birth | Age at Data Collection | Number of Playmates | Total Number |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
F1/ex situ | Ts | M | 2020 | 6 months | 3 | 8 |
Ku | M | 2021 | 6 months | 3 | ||
Gu | M | 2019 | 12 months | 3 | ||
Tu | F | 2016 | 24 months | 3 | ||
Jo | M | 2014 | 36 months | 3 | ||
Maj | F | 2017 | 48 months | 4 | ||
Ch | F | 2017 | 48 months | 3 | ||
Sa | F | 2017 | 48 months | 3 | ||
F2/ex situ | Ki | F | 2020 | 6 months | 4 | 8 |
Ne | M | 2021 | 6 months | 1 | ||
El | F | 2019 | 12 months | 2 | ||
Mar | F | 2019 | 30 months | 2 | ||
Tora | M | 2018 | 36 months | 4 | ||
Tori | M | 2018 | 42 months | 4 | ||
Ta | F | 2016 | 48 months | 2 | ||
Ay | M | 2016 | 48 months | 1 | ||
in situ | - | M & F | - | 3–48 months | 2–13 | ~90 |
Label | Behavior |
---|---|
Eat | Eating food using the trunk |
Drink | Drinking water using the trunk |
Suckle | Suckling milk from the mother’s breast |
Walk | Walking at a slow pace, no more than one step per s, with the purpose to go somewhere |
Run | Running in an enhanced space, more than one step per s, to run away from something or get somewhere fast for safety |
Trunk movement | Moving either the tip of the trunk or the whole trunk for practice or to search the ground for food/objects |
Washing | Washing the body with mud/water, sand bathing, rubbing the body on something to clean the skin, and protecting from mosquitos and sun |
Sleep | Sleeping or resting in a lying or standing position with the eyes closed |
Social play | Playing with one or more other individuals |
Lone play | Playing individually with oneself or an object |
Affiliative behavior | Behaving positively with other individuals (e.g., touching with the trunk, helping behavior) |
Agonistic behavior | Behaving negatively with other individuals (e.g., pushing with trunk, tusk, or body) |
Escaping | Running from something while showing signs of fear (screaming, low tail, head high) |
Seeking rescue | Running towards other individuals in fear (e.g., screaming, low tail, head high) and hiding under/behind them for protection |
Rescuing | Standing over/in front of other individuals for protection, after that individual ran towards them to seek rescue (see above) |
Threatening | Pacing towards something, head, trunk, and ears high, sometimes trumpeting |
Kruskal–Wallis | Tactile | <1 m | 1–3 m | 3–5 m | >5 m | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Kruskal–Wallis H | 15.495 | 0.222 | 15.082 | 13.113 | 13.995 | ||
df | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | ||
Asymp. Sig. | <0.001 | 0.895 | <.001 | 0.001 | <0.001 | ||
Monte Carlo Sig. | Sig. | <0.001 | 0.897 | <.001 | <0.001 | <0.001 | |
99% Confidence Interval | Lower Bound | 0.000 | 0.889 | 0.000 | 0.000 | 0.000 | |
Upper Bound | 0.000 | 0.905 | 0.000 | 0.001 | 0.001 | ||
Post hoc | |||||||
Sig. | F1/F2 | 0.224 | 0.651 | 0.819 | 0.887 | 0.570 | |
F1/in situ | <0.001 | 0.895 | <0.001 | 0.002 | <0.001 | ||
F2/in situ | 0.007 | 0.740 | 0.001 | 0.002 | 0.003 |
Kruskal–Wallis | Eat | Drink | Suckle | Walk | Run | Trunk Move. | Wash | Sleep | Social Play | Lone Play | Affiliative | Agonistic | Escape | Seek Resc. | Rescue | Threat | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
M | F1 | 39.703 | 1.459 | 2.264 | 10.105 | 1.415 | 11.924 | 3.335 | 2.679 | 6.495 | 7.121 | 12.435 | 0.453 | 0.058 | 0.164 | 0.104 | 0.236 | |
F2 | 35.13 | 0.616 | 6.179 | 10.398 | 1.048 | 14.56 | 1.955 | 2.47 | 4.88 | 6.869 | 14.944 | 0.31125 | 0.004 | 0.088 | 0.0 | 0.778 | ||
in situ | 4.566 | 7.713 | 4.3 | 8.032 | 0.536 | 1.939 | 8.431 | 3.206 | 7.884 | 2.225 | 48.22 | 0.13 | 0.225 | 1.273 | 0.606 | 0.653 | ||
Kruskal–Wallis H | 12.026 | 14.443 | 3.879 | 0.945 | 2.720 | 14.495 | 6.335 | 1.165 | 1.565 | 0.665 | 15.405 | 3.569 | 2.658 | 4.648 | 3.063 | 1.682 | ||
df | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | ||
Asymp. Sig. | 0.002 | <0.001 | 0.144 | 0.623 | 0.257 | <0.001 | 0.042 | 0.559 | 0.457 | 0.717 | <0.001 | 0.168 | 0.265 | 0.098 | 0.216 | 0.431 | ||
M.C. Sig. | Sig. | 0.001 | <0.001 | 0.147 | 0.647 | 0.267 | <0.001 | 0.039 | 0.580 | 0.474 | 0.733 | <0.001 | 0.156 | 0.279 | 0.101 | 0.313 | 0.447 | |
99% C.I. | L.B. | 0.000 | 0.000 | 0.138 | 0.635 | 0.256 | 0.000 | 0.034 | 0.567 | 0.461 | 0.722 | 0.000 | 0.147 | 0.267 | 0.093 | 0.301 | 0.434 | |
U.B. | 0.002 | 0.000 | 0.156 | 0.660 | 0.278 | 0.000 | 0.043 | 0.593 | 0.487 | 0.744 | 0.000 | 0.165 | 0.290 | 0.109 | 0.325 | 0.460 | ||
Post hoc | ||||||||||||||||||
Sig. | F1/F2 | 0.620 | 0.339 | 0.049 | 0.750 | 0.327 | 0.777 | 0.860 | 0.447 | 0.437 | 0.646 | 0.832 | 0.214 | 0.103 | 0.921 | 0.100 | 0.269 | |
F1/in situ | 0.001 | 0.007 | 0.299 | 0.340 | 0.101 | 0.002 | 0.037 | 0.777 | 0.646 | 0.724 | <0.001 | 0.064 | 0.454 | 0.056 | 0.765 | 0.254 | ||
F2/in situ | 0.006 | <0.001 | 0.352 | 0.525 | 0.510 | <0.001 | 0.024 | 0.297 | 0.216 | 0.416 | 0.001 | 0.541 | 0.379 | 0.069 | 0.179 | 0.972 |
Kruskal–Wallis | Affiliative Initiator | Affiliative Recipient | Agonistic Initiator | Agonistic Recipient | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Kruskal–Wallis H | 6.105 | 6.105 | 7.581 | 7.581 | ||
df | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | ||
Asymp. Sig. | 0.046 | 0.044 | 0.018 | 0.019 | ||
Monte Carlo Sig. | Sig. | 0.046 | 0.044 | 0.018 | 0.019 | |
99% Confidence Interval | Lower Bound | 0.041 | 0.039 | 0.015 | 0.016 | |
Upper Bound | 0.051 | 0.049 | 0.022 | 0.023 | ||
Post hoc | ||||||
Sig. | F1/F2 | 0.649 | 0.576 | 0.649 | 0.576 | |
F1/in situ | 0.022 | 0.010 | 0.022 | 0.010 | ||
F2/in situ | 0.050 | 0.037 | 0.050 | 0.037 |
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Hoerner, F.; Rendle-Worthington, J.; Lawrenz, A.; Oerke, A.-K.; Damerau, K.; Borragán Santos, S.; Hard, T.; Preisfeld, G. Differences in Mother–Infant Bond and Social Behavior of African Elephant Calves Living In Situ and Ex Situ. Animals 2023, 13, 3051. https://doi.org/10.3390/ani13193051
Hoerner F, Rendle-Worthington J, Lawrenz A, Oerke A-K, Damerau K, Borragán Santos S, Hard T, Preisfeld G. Differences in Mother–Infant Bond and Social Behavior of African Elephant Calves Living In Situ and Ex Situ. Animals. 2023; 13(19):3051. https://doi.org/10.3390/ani13193051
Chicago/Turabian StyleHoerner, Franziska, Jake Rendle-Worthington, Arne Lawrenz, Ann-Kathrin Oerke, Karsten Damerau, Santiago Borragán Santos, Therese Hard, and Gela Preisfeld. 2023. "Differences in Mother–Infant Bond and Social Behavior of African Elephant Calves Living In Situ and Ex Situ" Animals 13, no. 19: 3051. https://doi.org/10.3390/ani13193051
APA StyleHoerner, F., Rendle-Worthington, J., Lawrenz, A., Oerke, A.-K., Damerau, K., Borragán Santos, S., Hard, T., & Preisfeld, G. (2023). Differences in Mother–Infant Bond and Social Behavior of African Elephant Calves Living In Situ and Ex Situ. Animals, 13(19), 3051. https://doi.org/10.3390/ani13193051