The impact of social relationships on crop-raiding in male African savannah elephants

与对母系氏族社会关系的充分研究相比，对大象中支配公象行为的社会关系了解甚少。越来越多的证据表明，公象的行为是由雄性和雄性的社会过程驱动的。从青春期开始，雄性就离开母群和出生地，加入陌生地区的公牛社团。在这里，雄性寻找更年长的个体。通过与年长的雄性保持亲密关系，年轻的雄性可能会从他们对当地资源的了解中受益，同时学习公牛社会的社会规则。然而，在农业地区，年长男性的领导角色可能会有问题。高营养的栽培植物经常被进入农民田地抢劫的老年男性所寻找。年轻的雄性可能会跟随年长的同伴进入社区土地并学习这种行为，从而使它们与当地社区发生直接冲突。我们将研究博茨瓦纳大象与野生动物之间的冲突，目的是了解年长的公象的社会角色。

In contrast to the well-studied social relations in matriarchal groups, the social relations governing bull behaviour is poorly understood inelephants..There is growing evidence that bull elephant behaviour is driven by male-male social processes. From puberty, males leave their maternal herd andnatal areas, joining bull societies in areas that are unknown to them. Here, males seek out the proximity of older individuals. By staying close to oldermales, young males likely benefit from their knowledge about local resources, while learning social rules of bull society. However, in agricultural areas theleadership role of older males can be problematic. Highly-nutritional cultivated plants are often sought by old males who enter the farmers fields to crop-raid.Young males may follow older associates onto the community land and learn this behaviour, bringing them in direct conflict with local communities. We willexamine human-wildlife conflict in elephants in Botswana, with the aim of understanding the social role of old elephant bulls.