African Wildlife & Environment Issue 77 FINAL ISSUE

FAUNA, FLORA & WILDLIFE

The authors conclude that older male elephants are therefore important for determining movement patterns for younger males in the landscape (they go further than that, to be discussed later). Other elephant biologists have noted that older males function as 'disciplinarians' for younger ones – teaching them appropriate

their late 50s, although their numbers of offspring decline sharply in these later years.The conclusion one can draw from these results is that male elephants should ideally not be hunted before or during their prime reproductive age of around 40-50 years old. Elephants older than this have already contributed a great deal to the population;

Tourists crossing the Boteti River near Khumaga into the Makgadikgadi Pans National Park. This river is an important resource for humans and elephants.

behaviour within elephant society, and even towards other species. The latter observation is supported by the experience in Pilanesberg National Park, South Africa, where male elephants that were orphaned due to historical culling operations were released into the Park without older elephants. These traumatised young males caused havoc [https://www.newscientist.com/ article/mg15120390-300-orphan-elephants-go- on-the-rampage/] by killing rhinos and attacking tourist vehicles. The introduction of older males into this population caused the troublemakers to calm down [https://www.nature.com/ articles/35044191?proof=true]. Another line of scientific evidence that emphasises the importance of male elephants is from a paternity study in Amboseli National Park, Kenya. [Download the document here]. This study revealed that male elephants reach their breeding peak (i.e. number of calves they father) between 45-53 years old and they can still reproduce in

their genes will therefore not be lost if they are hunted when they are past their prime (more about age-related hunting can be found here.) Allen et al. also point out that male elephant society differs from female society in a number of important ways. First, males will group together or split with others over time, while female breeding herds stay together and do not randomly split up and regroup. Second, the matriarch walks at the back of her herd, to keep a watchful eye on those in front of her, thus actively caring for her group. Meanwhile, old males walk at the front and seem unconcerned about whether or not they are being followed by younger males. Finally, adolescent females do not travel large distances anywhere on their own (unless something is seriously wrong), while adolescent males do, even though they prefer the company of older males In terms of their function in elephant society, then, it is reasonable to say that older females (matriarchs or soon-to-be matriarchs) are more

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