Study
Matriarchs as repositories of social knowledge in African elephants
McComb, Karen; Moss, Cynthia; Durant, Sarah M.; Baker, Lucy; Sayialel, Soila
Science, 2001
Recorded contact calls from familiar and unfamiliar elephants were played to family groups, and the groups' defensive bunching and investigative responses were scored. Matriarch age was known from decades of individual records.
- Studied in
- Loxodonta africana
- Sample size
- 21 family groups in Amboseli, Kenya
Groups with older matriarchs discriminated familiar from unfamiliar calls more accurately and bunched defensively at appropriate times; groups with younger matriarchs reacted less appropriately.
What it means
The authors' reading, and ours. Where they differ, that difference is the point.
How the authors put it
Older matriarchs hold social knowledge that improves the whole family group's decisions, giving age itself a fitness value.
How NatureHQ reads it
One of the clearest demonstrations anywhere in behavioural ecology that an individual animal can be a repository of knowledge for a group. It also has a hard practical edge: removing old females — which is what ivory poaching does — removes information the family cannot replace, and that consequence is not visible in a population count.
- Playback experiments measure short-term response, not the decisions those responses stand in for.
- Observational data on matriarch age cannot be randomised.
- One population, in one protected area.
What this study is used for on NatureHQ
One study can inform several subjects. Here is everywhere this one is cited.
Published by: American Association for the Advancement of SciencePublished in Science or Science Advances (AAAS).
doi.org/10.1126/science.1057895
This reference was resolved automatically against Crossref and OpenAlex on 2026-08-11.
NatureHQ summarises research in its own words and does not reproduce published text. Reviewed 2026-08-09.