Elephant Personalities

Elephants have 4 distinct personalities to help them survive in the wild.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/wildlife/9638340/Elephant-personalities-revealed-by-scientists.html

littlewid-x-

What a fascinating study LW, Thanks. So very interesting to read that, and as we know Echo certainly had the qualitys that they mention, in her leadership of her family, her problem solving capabilty was well known throughout her life. It wiil be interesting to see if they finf the same traits in other groups, and males
WS

Great article, and it goes to show what we all know that all animals have personalities.

Lai

Eles are amazing animals aren't they and so very intelligent. Echo was a great ambasador for eles and your right Doogs, we shouldn't be surprised by eles, sometimes I think animls are far more intelligent than we are glad you all liked the article.

littlewid-x-

I love these studies that are based on very solid evidence i.e. in this case the data was collected over 38 years of watching this group.

In virtually all the African wildlife I know dominance and aggression is required for leadership but elephants instead respected intelligence and problem solving in their leader.

That makes them very special animals indeed.

It has always been known that the oldest and biggest cow directs the movements of a herd. This would be a female that have accumulated her necessary experience over 30 to 40 years.

This female will make most of the decisions about where and when the herd forages, drinks and rests.

It is very sad to see that when these old cows are shot their knowledge is lost and the rest of the group will wander aimlessly as a result.

Thanks for posting this littlewid

Chris

I'm glad you liked the article Chris. I too am one that appreciates research that is done over a long period of time as the data is more solid and less likely to be open to question, although all research is always open to question as that is the basis of research, so maybe I should say its less likely to be up for dispute.

I am looking forward to seeing if they do research the males for personality traits but I wonder if tht would be done over the same period of time? I am not so sure as they haven't really followed a huge number of Bulls over a long period of time I don't believe whereas the Amboseli Elephants have been followed closely for so long. It will be interesting though.

I too agree that is is incredibly sad when older cows are shot, it leaves an incredible void in the herd and the dynamics often change.

littlewid-x-

What a wonderful article. And a wonderful family to base the research on. The more they find out about elephants, the less surprised I am. They are so intelligent. I think we could learn a lot from them. I hope they manage to research the males as well.

Glad you liked the article AM, I thought it would be one you would enjoy knowing your huge love of the

littlewid-x-