Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: http://hdl.handle.net/1893/22469
Appears in Collections:Psychology Journal Articles
Peer Review Status: Refereed
Title: The influence of forage, protected areas, and mating prospects on grouping patterns of male elephants
Author(s): Chiyo, Patrick
Wilson, John
Archie, Elizabeth A
Lee, Phyllis C
Moss, Cynthia J
Alberts, Susan C
Contact Email: phyllis.lee@stir.ac.uk
Keywords: Amboseli, Kenya
Anthropogenic mortality risk
estrus
group size
sociality
elephant.
Issue Date: Nov-2014
Date Deposited: 11-Nov-2015
Citation: Chiyo P, Wilson J, Archie EA, Lee PC, Moss CJ & Alberts SC (2014) The influence of forage, protected areas, and mating prospects on grouping patterns of male elephants. Behavioral Ecology, 25 (6), pp. 1494-1504. https://doi.org/10.1093/beheco/aru152
Abstract: Factors affecting social group size in mammals are relatively well studied for females, but less is known about determinants of group size for males, particularly in species that live in sexually segregated groups. Male grouping patterns are thought to be driven more by spatial and temporal dispersion of mating opportunities than by food resources or predation risk. We evaluated the influence of 3 factors on male group sizes and number of males in mixed-sex groups in African elephants; forage availability (using Normalized Difference Vegetation Index, a satellite-based indicator of primary productivity), anthropogenic mortality risk (using distance of elephants from a protected area center), and mating opportunities (using the number of males in mixed-sex groups with and without estrous females). Using zero-truncated negative binomial regressions and a model-selection approach, we found that male elephants occurred in larger groups where primary productivity was higher and where they were further from a protected area center. However, we found an interaction between primary productivity and anthropogenic mortality risk: at low primary productivity, elephants formed larger groups further away from a protected area center, but did less so at higher primary productivity. This pattern suggests that male elephants are sensitive to seasonal variation in potential anthropogenic mortality risk, by remaining in smaller groups when risk is low, but forming larger groups when risk is high. Mating opportunities also led to an increase in male numbers in mixed-sex groups, but its relative influence on male grouping was less important because mating opportunities were rare.
DOI Link: 10.1093/beheco/aru152
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