Elephants: Female Rankings
Posted at 9:10 am August 26, 2009 by Emily Rothwell
Umngani walks with her new calf, Ingadze, who is followed by Kamile. Lungile is in the background eating hay.
Like any normal family, female elephants in family groups have disputes and are known to display aggression toward one another. This aggression follows particular rules based on a dominance hierarchy in which each female has a rank ranging from dominant to subordinate. For wild elephants, ranks are based on age or size in that the matriarch, often the oldest and largest female, is also the most dominant. Then the next oldest or largest female in the herd follows as second in command and so on until you reach the youngest and smallest female as the lowest rank and most subordinate. You may find this somewhat similar to an older sibling picking on the middle child while the middle picks on the youngest.
Groups of elephants living in zoos differ from families of wild elephants in that oftentimes the females in zoo groups are not related. Despite this, groups of zoo elephants also display dominance hierarchies. We studied hierarchy of our six female elephants in the Wild Animal Park herd by recording aggressive interactions. These interactions included pushing one another around or stealing a resource from one another (e.g. hay pile, enrichment item, mud wallow, swimming pool). We were particularly interested in seeing how our females ranked themselves in the hierarchy because they are similar in age and size.
How did our females determine their ranks? We found they followed a similar pattern to wild elephants in that our bigger females (Swazi, Umoya, and Ndula) ranked higher in the hierarchy and were dominant, while our smaller females (Umngani, Litsemba, and Lungile) ranked lower and were subordinate. This tells us that, although our females are not a closely related family group like wild elephant herds, they still interact with one another in a natural way that any other elephant family would.
On a personal note, I would like to thank all of the blog enthusiasts for accepting me as a member of the Wild Animal Park elephant research family by reading and commenting on my posts. The one-year research fellowship that I began last August is coming to a close, and so is my time with the elephants. The rest of the staff will keep you up to date for now, but it has been a pleasure sharing stories about the elephants with all of you!
Emily Rothwell is a Heller Fellow Research Associate with the San Diego Zoo’s Institute for Conservation Research. Read her previous post, Sleeping Giants.
Watch the Park’s elephants daily on Elephant Cam.
Update: The Park’s Meet the Elephants page has been updated!
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August 26th, 2009 at 11:12 am
Emily, it has been a pleasure to read your information packed blogs. Good luck with your future endovors.
August 26th, 2009 at 11:27 am
Like your previous post, Sleeping Giants, this post is very informative. I wish you luck in your future endeavors and hope you will find a way to keep us posted on yout adventures elsewhere.
August 26th, 2009 at 11:36 am
where you going Emily?!!! I want to say thanks for the info….I was wondering do you guys have a howdy gate so they can breed? where is the males of elephants? are they close by?? next time I will visit SDZ wild park….I think elephants is my favorite because of the bond of all females and kids they take care or adopt…they are sensitive kind beautiful animal
Moderator’s note: The Wild Animal Park’s adult male, Mabu, lives with the females and has fathered several calves (with more on the way in 2010!).
August 26th, 2009 at 11:56 am
are any eles scheduled for arrival or departure at the park?? Thanks
August 26th, 2009 at 8:21 pm
Emily, really enjoyed reading your articles. Good luck in school and everything else that you have planned in the future.
I was on the MSNBC website tonite, hit the Animal Tracks link, and saw an amazing photo of an Asian elephant named Motala, 48 years old, with an artificial leg prosthesis on her front leg. The circumstances as to what happened to her real front leg is unknown, but from what I got from seeing the pic, she was doing pretty good on the prosthetic leg being led on a loose leash by an elephant trainer. She was at an elephant hospital in Lampang Province, Bangkok, Thailand. This is a great breakthru for new ways to save elephants and keep them going without having to put them down because of one bad leg. Great work to the Thai veterinarians and prosthetic techs for giving Motala another chance at living out her own life! Hopefully, more can be done in the area of vet medicine and technology to make sure that both African and Asian elephants can be able to live their lives free from illness and injury while they are in zoos and sanctuaries.
Chari Mercier
St. Pete, FL
August 27th, 2009 at 1:34 pm
Emily, it has been great reading your articles. Glad you enjoyed your year with the elephants at WAP. We appreciate you sharing your knowledge of elephants and your experiences with us.
Best wishes for success in your career and your future endeavors. You have been a great friend to the elephants and their caretakers.
We are looking forward to the update on the Elephant Odyssey “herd” which will be coming in due time when the keepers and web staff have time to give us an update.
August 27th, 2009 at 1:47 pm
Hi, Emily,
I had a chance to talk to you at the WAP and gave you 2 DVD’s to take to your next adventure to remind you of your time at the WAP. I have a new DVD called Pool Party that I would like to give you also, if you can tell me how. Got a chance to video Umngani and her kids, Khosi and Ingadze, having a splashing good time with Punga and Kami. Out of about an hour, I kept 16 minutes of action. It’s very difficult to see the elephants having so much fun in the water and this was one time noone had to coax them. Thanks for all the explanation about the sleep habits of the elephants and the fact that they really do lay down to sleep. I know you are due to leave for your next adventure shortly. How can I get this Pool Party DVD to you? I’m sure you will enjoy it!
Moderator’s note: We’ll forward this message to Emily for you, Don.
August 27th, 2009 at 2:56 pm
Don do you have it on youtube? I think we all would love to see it!
I think they should put a cam closer to the pool for us to see them up close and having fun
August 27th, 2009 at 5:42 pm
Re 8. I only share my DVD’s with the people who make it possible for me to take them in the first place. Sometimes I am lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time to get some priceless footage. The elephant keepers are so busy cleaning up poop and providing the environment for the elephants to enjoy that I hope I can provide them a little enjoyment they can watch at their leisure that they probably didn’t see when it actually occurred.
August 28th, 2009 at 9:45 am
Chari #5, pandasliveon had a picture and story on the web sight about a 2 weeks ago about the elephant you are speaking about. She had stepped on a land mine about ten years ago and lost part of the foot, the artifical leg they made was amazing and they showed pictures of it before they put it on, it was huge. The keeper let her out and she was blowing dust and having a grand old time. Modern technology at it’s best, see what can be done with a little imagination and the love of animals.
August 28th, 2009 at 4:51 pm
I too saw this story about the artificial foot and was very amazed! it seems like it was a long time ago that it was on animal planet! anyway, it was very interesting.
best of luck to you emily!! we will miss your interesting posts and up-dates!! I wish you a happy, interesting, eventful, wonderful life!!
September 1st, 2009 at 11:30 am
I see something round in the exhibit. Is that a boomer ball or is it some type of boulder?
Moderator’s note: There is a Boomer ball out on exhibit right now.
September 26th, 2009 at 6:58 pm
Was Kami just digging up grass with her left front foot, swinging up the grass with her trunk and into her mouth with a flourish?? Looked like her mother came over to check it out.