Family and group tight bonds

Some species are so social that it is impossible to say that any two or three individuals are closer psychically than any others. The family group is together all the time – togetherness that would drive most people mad. The three species represented here are the elephant, orca, and naked mole-rat. Other species have groups whose closeness depends upon their environment – if the area is densely populated with animals of the same species, then mature youngsters will not be able to start reproducing for themselves, but may stay with their natal family, helping to raise the next year’s young. Examples are wolves, coyotes, beaver, crows, and gibbons. The final five species discussed, woolly spider monkeys, black-handed spider monkeys, lesser kudu, white rhinoceros, and sperm whales, form friendly groups for reasons that require further study. Elephants Are there preferred dyads, triads, foursomes, or any other combination of individuals present in maternal elephant troops? There is no way to tell. A herd of adult female elephants ( Loxodonta africana ) and their young (the males go their separate ways when they reach adolescence) is so tight that infants, nieces, mothers, aunts, grandmothers, and great-grandmothers are never really separated during their entire, long lives. Cynthia Moss, in her book Elephant Memories (1988), which she wrote after researching the social behavior of elephants in Amboseli National Park for 20 years, notes that all females and young live in such family units. Individuals coordinate their activities so that they are doing the same thing at the same time. If they are traveling, wallowing, resting, or standing, they tend to bunch closely together; they are immensely tactile, often touching each other with their trunks, or leaning and rubbing against one another. (What a nightmare this scenario would be for humans who value their independence!) If, during migration, a baby cannot keep up with the others, the adults slow down as they move forward; if an old female is sick or dying, they gather around her as if offering silent sympathy. When members of a herd have been feeding for a few hours somewhat apart, they salute each other fervently when they again join forces, raising their heads, spreading and flapping their ears, tucking in their chins, and rumbling loud and throatily. If herd members have been separated for a few days, their greetings are even more vehement. They may “spin around urinating and defecating and, with their heads and ears high, fill the air with a deafening cacophony of rumbles, trumpets, roars, and screams” (Poole, 1996). The intensity of the ceremony reflects the degree of their attachment.

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