Presented August 14th, 2012 Wildlife Research Techniques School for Field Studies FVCproductions https://fvcproductions.com

1. The Effect of Juveniles and
Females on the Response to
Observers in African Elephants
FVCproductions
The School For Field Studies
The Effect of Juveniles and Females
Together On Response to Observer in
Elephants
Behavior Shown
Proportionof
Elephants
Graph 1. Represents negative
relationship in terms of active
responses with the more juveniles
and females there are present.
Material
and
Methods
Results
Introduction
Conclusion
Elephants are highly intelligent animals that display complex social behaviors like humans, such as
parenting, communal care, birthing, social play, group defense, and vocal/scent communication. It is
already known that matriarchs, groups of related females and their young, make up majority of large
herds in African elephants. Given close connections of elephant mothers and their kind has been well
documented before, the objective is to discover if a higher number of elephant mothers and their
juveniles together represents a higher probability of them ignoring human observance and continuing
to care for their young most prominently or if observing humans is a way to care for offspring for safety.
Using safari vehicles inside of the study areas (others not mentioned because elephants not found there) of Tarangire Park (June 25) and
Lake Manyara National Park (June 20-21), all species of animals were recorded every 2 km for each transect line with a 500m transition in
between each transect end, where no animals were recorded. Using the data from African elephants in Tarangire and Lake Manyara
National Park, Graph 1 (below) was produced showcasing the number of female and juvenile elephants in relation to the behavior shown.
The graph was produced from data in the large Excel file which was then analyzed using a Pivot table.
There was a higher proportion
of walking behavior with the
more juveniles and females,
maybe due to trying to get away
from observers. The lowest
proportion of juveniles and
females were found to have no
response, probably because they
are cautious enough to have a
response.
The results graphically suggest that
the more females and juveniles there
are in a herd of African elephants, the
more likely it is the elephants will not
respond to the observer. However, due
to the lack of data collected, it is
possible to also assume that there is no
correlation. Assuming there is a
relationship though, we can either
assume that elephants with more
juveniles and females walk in order to
avoid observers and that females are
less to have no response, maybe
because they are extremely cautious
when it comes to their young.
0.00
0.25
0.50
0.75
1.00
No response Looking at Observer Walking
Proportion of Juveniles and Females