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firepaw: Elephants’ Social Life Desert Trackways: Seven-Million-Year-Old Clues To Elephant Social Complexity The core social units in elephant herds are made up of female relatives and their offspring. In these matriarchal units, bonds are tight. When family members spend time apart, their reunion is often a joyful event, marked by entwined trunks and trumpeted vocalizations. Males remain part of these units only until puberty. After that, they live mostly on their own, returning to the herd for mating. Last month, scientists reported an exciting discovery: A series of fossilized footprints suggests that elephants lived in these same family units, with the big bulls roaming alone, seven million years ago. .
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Elephants’ Social Life

Desert Trackways: Seven-Million-Year-Old Clues To Elephant Social Complexity

The core social units in elephant herds are made up of female relatives and their offspring. In these matriarchal units, bonds are tight. When family members spend time apart, their reunion is often a joyful event, marked by entwined trunks and trumpeted vocalizations. Males remain part of these units only until puberty. After that, they live mostly on their own, returning to the herd for mating.

Last month, scientists reported an exciting discovery: A series of fossilized footprints suggests that elephants lived in these same family units, with the big bulls roaming alone, seven million years ago.

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