Leadership in elephants: the adaptive value of age

The value of age is well recognized in human societies, where older individuals often emerge as leaders in tasks requiring specialized knowledge, but what part do such individuals play in other social species? Despite growing interest in how effective leadership might be achieved in animal social sy...

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Published in:Proceedings of the Royal Society. B, Biological sciences Biological sciences, 2011-11, Vol.278 (1722), p.3270-3276
Main Authors: McComb, Karen, Shannon, Graeme, Durant, Sarah M., Sayialel, Katito, Slotow, Rob, Poole, Joyce, Moss, Cynthia
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Acoustic Stimulation
Age Factors
Age structure
Animals
Behavior, Animal - physiology
Cognitive Abilities
Elephants
Elephants - physiology
Female
Group Processes
Humans
Kenya
Leadership
Linear Models
Lions
Longevity
Loxodonta africana
Mammals
Materials
National parks
Observation
Playback Experiment
Population ecology
Predators
Social Behavior
Social Mammals
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cited_by cdi_FETCH-LOGICAL-c559t-b6f6031d9d5b82556a537f56b17bf0fcee22a43dc1742412f829d487da572c8e3
cites cdi_FETCH-LOGICAL-c559t-b6f6031d9d5b82556a537f56b17bf0fcee22a43dc1742412f829d487da572c8e3
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container_issue 1722
container_start_page 3270
container_title Proceedings of the Royal Society. B, Biological sciences
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creator McComb, Karen
Shannon, Graeme
Durant, Sarah M.
Sayialel, Katito
Slotow, Rob
Poole, Joyce
Moss, Cynthia
description The value of age is well recognized in human societies, where older individuals often emerge as leaders in tasks requiring specialized knowledge, but what part do such individuals play in other social species? Despite growing interest in how effective leadership might be achieved in animal social systems, the specific role that older leaders may play in decision-making has rarely been experimentally investigated. Here, we use a novel playback paradigm to demonstrate that in African elephants (Loxodonta africana), age affects the ability of matriarchs to make ecologically relevant decisions in a domain critical to survival—the assessment of predatory threat. While groups consistently adjust their defensive behaviour to the greater threat of three roaring lions versus one, families with younger matriarchs typically under-react to roars from male lions despite the severe danger they represent. Sensitivity to this key threat increases with matriarch age and is greatest for the oldest matriarchs, who are likely to have accumulated the most experience. Our study provides the first empirical evidence that individuals within a social group may derive significant benefits from the influence of an older leader because of their enhanced ability to make crucial decisions about predatory threat, generating important insights into selection for longevity in cognitively advanced social mammals.
doi_str_mv 10.1098/rspb.2011.0168
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source JSTOR Archival Journals and Primary Sources Collection; PubMed Central
subjects Acoustic Stimulation
Age Factors
Age structure
Animals
Behavior, Animal - physiology
Cognitive Abilities
Elephants
Elephants - physiology
Female
Group Processes
Humans
Kenya
Leadership
Linear Models
Lions
Longevity
Loxodonta africana
Mammals
Materials
National parks
Observation
Playback Experiment
Population ecology
Predators
Social Behavior
Social Mammals
title Leadership in elephants: the adaptive value of age
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