The significance of matriarchal experience for effective leadership in African elephant

母系经验对非洲象有效领导的意义

• 批准号: 2442199
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: University of Sussex
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Studentship
• 财政年份: 2020
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2020 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=studentship-2442199
• 关键词: significance; matriarchal; experience; effective; leadership

African elephants maintain highly complex social structures in which dominant females leadsub-groups of related females and their dependent offspring. Matriarchs are assumed to playa key leadership role and to be integral for the survival and fitness of their family group. Inparticular, older matriarchs with correspondingly more experience are posited to be superiorleaders. Recent research supports this: there is evidence for groups led by older matriarchsresponding more effectively to the threat of lion predation, having enhanced socialknowledge of the wider elephant network and making superior decisions during extremeclimatic events sufficient to result in survival and reproductive benefits for them and theirfamilies. However, the mechanisms by which the matriarch co-ordinates group behaviour andthe extent to which group members survival strategies depend on learnt strategies from thematriarch, are unknown. If the matriarch has superior knowledge in the realms ofnavigational ability, risk proneness, threat perception and social networks, then the loss of amatriarch, or the establishment of a young and inexperienced matriarch may have farreachingconsequences. This is highly relevant as (i) matriarchs suffer selective-removal atthe behest of the ivory trade due to their larger size and (ii) rapidly changing environmentsmanifest in novel challenges which may demand effective leadership for elephant survival and reproduction.

非洲象维持着高度复杂的社会结构，在这种结构中，占主导地位的雌性大象领导着相关雌性亚群及其依赖的后代。母系族长被认为发挥着关键的领导作用，对于其家庭群体的生存和健康是不可或缺的。特别是，年龄较大、经验相对较丰富的女家长被认为是上级或领导者。最近的研究支持这一点：有证据表明，由年长的母象长领导的群体对狮子捕食的威胁做出了更有效的反应，提高了社会对更广泛的大象网络的了解，并在极端事件期间做出了足以为它们及其家人带来生存和生殖利益的更好的决定。然而，母系族长协调群体行为的机制，以及群体成员的生存策略在多大程度上依赖于从母系族长那里学到的策略，都是未知的。如果女族长在导航能力、风险倾向、威胁感知和社会网络等领域拥有高超的知识，那么失去族长或建立一个年轻而缺乏经验的女族长可能会产生令人震惊的后果。这一点具有很高的相关性，因为(1)在象牙贸易的要求下，母象因体型较大而被有选择地驱逐；(2)迅速变化的环境表现为新的挑战，可能需要对大象的生存和繁殖发挥有效的领导作用。