Spatial Positions of Individuals within Female Asian Elephant Groups during Movement and Feeding in Nagarahole-Bandipur, Southern India

Abstract

The benefits of group-living are unlikely to be shared equally among the members of a group and can be influenced by physiological and ecological factors as well as the spatial positioning of individuals. In gregarious species, this is also influenced by the social relationships between individuals and the presence of key individuals that can influence the behaviour of other members. Here, I studied whether the oldest individuals in groups of female Asian elephants influenced group behaviour during movement and feeding. I show that the oldest females disproportionately occupy the leading (or first) position during single file-progressions, but the orientation of individuals during feeding was not influenced by the oldest female. Whether the pattern observed during movement has a leadership function is yet to be shown conclusively, but my results open opportunities for a range of studies in a species less studied in the context of group leadership. Additionally, age did not affect an individual’s distance from the centre of the group feeding, indicating that spatial positioning in this species may be affected by factors other than predation risk or feeding competition. Pairwise inter-individual distances were negatively correlated with association index and presence of calves in the group, suggesting that individuals preferred to feed near close associates and that they increased group cohesion when calves were present in the group.