In elephants, the resilience of communities has its limits
Summary
African savanna elephants live in highly resilient communities that generally manage to stay together despite demographic changes and mortality spikes. Extended research indicates that surviving herd members can successfully rebuild their social networks following events like poaching incidents or sudden increases in population loss.
Elephants live in some of the most complex and resilient societies in the animal kingdom. Individuals die or move away, calves grow up, and newcomers join, but the local communities as a whole usually hold together. Long-term studies of African savanna elephants have shown that, even after poaching or other spikes in deaths, survivors tend to rebuild their lost connections…
Source: Read the full story at Ars Technica