Some Female Elephants Are Social Butterflies, Others Quiet Introverts
/Shy & Retiring to Social Butterflies
Asian Elephants Are Social Networkers Science NOW
Shermin de Silva, a graduate student at U of Penn and behavioral ecologist at the Elephant, Forest and Environment Conservation Trust in Sri Lanka, and her team believe that elephants express degrees of social diversity found in female humans. Some elephants have just a few female friends with bonds that go on for years, while others are more extroverted social betterflies.
The two-year study tracked nearly 300 pachyderms for five seasons in the Udawalawe National Park in Sri Lanka.
Among the elephant matriarchy, females and babies stay together, while males roam separate from the group. Studying the elephant relationships based on ‘top five friends’ the researchers found that elepants sustained their long-distance friendships by communicating with chemicals and noise.
Much to their surprise, some females were extremely extroverted, changing friends daily. About 16 percent of the elephants completely changed their ‘top five friends’ over the two-year period.
In all, the research shows that female Asian elephants live in a very dynamic society, where individuals leave and rejoin small groups at will. This behavior is similar to those seen in other intelligent mammals, like dolphins and chimpanzees, and simultaneously maintaining many relationships suggests “a high level of cognitive capacity,” says behavioral ecologist Phyllis Lee, another member of the team.
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Hillary Clinton on Foreign Aid Cuts
While ‘Project Runway’s’ Tim Gunn spent his time dissing Hillary Clinton’s pant suits and gender-confused style with George Lopez last night, the Secretary of State was focused on warning Congress that she will fight to block a Republican push to restrict aid for Israel’s Arab neighbors and Pakistan and cut off climate change funds.
The bill cuts off any funds to NGOs that support or promote abortions, which effectively kills any family planning assistance to women in poor countries.
Clinton is on record saying she will ask President Obama to veto the bill that would also bar defense aid to Egypt, Lebanon, the Palestinian Authority and Yemen if extremist groups such as the Muslim Brotherhood, Hezbollah and Hamas are part of the government. via The Hill
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