For orphaned elephants, friends may be key to stress relief
Living with peers may help young elephants thrive, according to new research—a finding that could help elephants orphaned by poaching and drought.
When a group of researchers set out to study the well-being of wild juvenile African savanna elephants in central Kenya, they had a theory: Orphaned elephants would be more stressed out than non-orphans.
There’s a lot of evidence that the mother-child bond helps buffer against stress in animals, which has been demonstrated previously in rats, finches, and guinea pigs, says study leader Jenna Parker, a postdoctoral research fellow with the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance and Colorado State University. Elephants have sophisticated social structures and deep familial bonds. Because orphaned elephants in the same region die at a higher rate than elephants with living mothers, it seemed like a no-brainer that
