By Athena Chortareas
Thousands of African savanna elephants die because of poaching and droughts every year. Furthermore, a long maturation process contributes to an increased number of orphaned elephants. In Kenya, there are currently only 36,000 elephants left. Therefore, it was no surprise that the International Union for Conservation of Nature classified African savanna elephants as endangered in 2021.
A study conducted by the Smithsonian Conservative Biology Institute, the Save the Elephants initiative in Kenya, and a team of researchers from Colorado State University regarding the decreasing elephant population began in 2015 when the number of elephant poaching incidents in the Samburu National Reserve area had been increasing. This study was published this week in the journal Communications Biology. Several conclusions made from this study have helped us acquire more insight into the condition of the elephant population and how we can help improve it.
Elephants have complex social systems and develop close family ties. The study hypothesized that surviving orphans will experience more stress than elephants with living parents because they have a higher mortality rate than the former.
By analyzing the level of stress hormones in the feces of 37 young elephants in Kenya, the researchers looked into the effects of the parent's death on the calf. 20 of the 25 orphans continued living with their extended family. However, five joined an unrelated group. Despite the prediction that orphaned elephants would exhibit more signs of stress due to the absence of a maternal figure, the researchers discovered that the stress hormone levels of orphaned elephants and elephants with maternal figures had a negligible difference.
The study lead and postdoctoral research fellow at the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance and Colorado State University, Jenna Parker, found satisfactory evidence that the bond between the mother and her calf relieves stress in animals through studies on various other animals such as rats, finches, and guinea pigs.
Parker noted that stress levels in a recently orphaned calf did not linger for very long, demonstrating their resilience and the impact of social support from other elephants in their herd. The study concluded that orphaned juvenile elephants in the African savanna experience less stress due to the social support of their extended families.
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