Social Structure and Helping Behavior in Captive Elephants
Selective pressures on individual behavior serve to mold social structure and subsequent levels of cooperation in social species, including elephants. Adult Asian (Elephas maximus) and African (Loxodonta africana) elephants have complex social societies that differ markedly between the sexes. Elephant social structure and cooperative behavior may have evolved in part to prepare young elephants to […]
Transport of dead infant mountain gorillas by mothers and unrelated females
Abstract 10.1002/zoo.20001.abs This report describes prolonged carriage of the corpses of two mountain gorilla infants by both related and unrelated adult females. Two hypotheses regarding this transport are considered: 1) that maternal behavior toward unrelated infants may be a by-product of the hormonal condition of pregnancy, and 2) that the animals may be “learning to […]
The behavior of a zoo-housed infant orangutan after the death of its mother
Abstract The behavior of an infant female orangutan at Dublin Zoo before and after the death of her mother was recorded using scan sampling and compared. Social interactions and associations of the infant with the other individuals in the group were also compared before and after the death of her mother. Increases in climbing and […]