Achievement

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Report Title
New elephant data gives interesting findings

Objective

Allow volunteers to get a better understanding of the behavioural interactions between our
elephants
Explore new avenues for potential future behavioural research projects

Summary
The collection of scientific data is a vital part of the work we do at GVI Chiang Mai, and we are con-
stantly seeking ways to improve and develop our projects. To that end we recently created a new
data set, specifically designed to give us greater insights into the elephants behaviour, and produce
ideas for more specific studies in the future. After just two months, this data already yielded inter-
esting results regarding the relationships between young elephants and adults that are not their
mother. We have therefore now adapted the data to focus on this aspect, as well as how the young
learn from the adults around them. By constantly focusing our data collection further, we hope to
gain previously unknown insights in the behaviours of these complex and majestic creatures.

Report

In July this year, the elephant team at GVI Chiang Mai decided to make some changes to the re-
search projects to ensure we are always searching for ways to develop and improve them. We cre-
ated a set of data known around the hub as Movement Data. This data set was designed to give
both volunteers and staff a more broad understanding of the social interactions and behaviours of
our elephants. Prior to this, we had been collecting very specific data on the touches between ele-
phants and their vocalisations. Since we had over a years data on these aspects that was ready for
analysis, we decided to look for new avenues to pursue. However, it had been so long since we had
taken a general overview of the elephants behavior, it was hard to determine what we should be
looking at next.

In came the Movement Data. This data set was designed specifically to pick up on any interesting
interactions and trends in the behvaiours of the elephants, so that we could build on these and de-
sign more specific studies in the future. We gave volunteers a list of ten behaviours we wanted them
to record, including touches from the trunk of one elephant to the mouth of another, displacement
feeding (where one elephant moves another out of the way to feed) and which elephants the juve-
niles were spending most time with. These lists were produced based upon both the current litera-
ture on elephant behaviour, and the extensive experience of staff and interns with our elephants.
Alongside these ten target activities, we gave space for the data collectors to include any other in-
teractions they thought noteworthy.

After two months of data collection, Elephant Intern Danielle analysed the data to see what our ini-
tial findings were. While at this point the data was still fairly limited, some key trends were already
starting to appear. The main trend was that of the presence of allomothering. Allomothering is when
an adult that is not the mother performs the duties of a mother, thus assisting with the care of
young. Both of our two herds include a mother and offspring pair during the two months of data
collection. Our first herd, which usually consist of three adult females between the ages of 30 and

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55, had the addition of one of the adults son, 5-year-old Mario, for four weeks during the data col-
lection period. Interestingly, while with the herd Mario spent very little time with his mother, Sah
Jah, preferring instead to spend almost his entire time following an unrelated elephant, Mana. We
are unsure exactly why this was the case, but one theory given to us by the elephants mahouts is
that his mother knows its time for him to be independent and so didnt want to let him rely on her.
Our second herd includes a much younger elephant, 8-month-old Wan Mai. He is in a herd with both
his mother and grandmother, and the allomothering in this herd is very clear for all to see. Although
the data shows he does spend slightly more time with his mother, Kha Moon, he actually has more
physical contact with his grandmother, Khum Suk. Given that touches between elephants are often
associated with comfort and learning, this is a really interesting finding.

Having gotten these early results, we decided to once again revamp our data collection to focus
more on these aspects. The target behaviours now include which elephant Wan Mai seeks comfort
in and who the young elephant is imitating and learning from. Having had discussions with a leading
external researcher based at Bangkok University, we are also trying to assess the use of smell in the
deciding which direction to move through the forest. This data set is designed to be fluid and so far
has been very successful at allowing us to see behavioural trends we might have otherwise missed.
We hope that in the future we can use these insights to create more specific studies that will be able
to add to the global scientific knowledge on Asian Elephants.

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