Elephant society 'is still disrupted decades after cull'

[cronus]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-24754682

Elephant society 'is still disrupted decades after cull'

African elephants' decision-making abilities are left impaired by culling operations that ended decades ago, University of Sussex research suggests.

A study found that elephant herds that lost adults to culls during the 1970s and 1980s were less able to respond appropriately to other elephant calls.

Lead researcher Prof Karen McComb said the animals' "social understanding" had been impaired by the loss of adults.

The results are published in the journal Frontiers in Zoology.

The scientists, from the University of Sussex, say this is the first "systematic evidence that fundamental social skills may be significantly impaired by man-made disruption".

To study this, the researchers compared the behaviour of two herds of elephants: those in the Amboseli National Park, in Kenya, which have been relatively undisturbed by culling operations and a population in Pilanesberg National Park, South Africa.

The herd at Pilanesberg was made up of young orphaned elephants introduced during the early 1980s and 1990s, after management culls of adult and older juvenile animals in the Kruger National Park.

There is already evidence that the loss of these adult elephants had dramatic social consequences on South Africa's elephants; the researchers describe these effects as akin to post traumatic stress disorder.

In two protected areas in South Africa, Prof McComb told BBC News, "young, orphaned male elephants became hyper-aggressive and attacked and killed rhinoceroses".

(continued, good thing elephants aren't smart enough to identify the true culprits....yet)

[JimC]

Where is Barbar when you need him...