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In elephants, the resilience of communities has its limits
Elephants live in some of the most complex and resilient societies in the animal kingdom. Individuals die or move away, calves grow up, and newcomers join, but the local communities as a whole usually hold together.
AI Summary
A 12‑year observation of wild Asian elephants in Sri Lanka, led by behavioral ecologist Anastasia Madsen of UC San Diego, shows that while elephant societies can rebuild after spikes in deaths, continuous losses eventually overwhelm that resilience. The researchers found that when the rate of individual deaths exceeds the influx of new members, the community does not merely shrink—it fractures into smaller, disconnected groups. This pattern indicates a limit to the long‑term stability of elephant social structures.
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