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What is the role of the male elephant?
Older male elephants have an important role to play in the survival of the species by passing on their skills and knowledge to younger males, a study of African elephants suggests. Matriarchs lead groups of daughters and their calves, while males grow up and leave the herd.
What is the leader of elephant herd called?
the matriarch
The oldest and largest mother is the leader. She is called the matriarch. The herd walks in a line behind her.
Who leads an elephant herd male or female?
An elephant herd has mainly females and baby elephants. The oldest female is the leader of the herd. A herd may have 10 to 12 female elephants and young ones. Male elephants live in the herd till they are 14–15 years old.
Why are male elephants alone?
Males were long assumed to be loners, because they leave their mother’s herd when they reach 10 to 20 years of age. A new study shows that teenage males aren’t anti-social after all. Younger male elephants were seen tagging along behind older males as they travel from place to place.
What happens to the male elephants of a herd?
The largest and oldest elephant bulls tend to win mating fights, leaving younger ones to roam and grow in size. While a male elephant may temporarily rejoin a herd during the mating period, he will strike out on his own after approximately a two-week period.
Are male elephants called bulls?
Adult male elephants are called bulls. Adult female elephants are called cows. A baby elephant is called a calf.
Does the baby elephant leave the herd?
Young females will usually stay with the herd, whilst the males leave the herd during adolescence (between the ages of 10 and 19 years) to lead the life of a more solitary bull elephant.
What makes a male elephant so special?
And, there is something that is particularly unusual about male elephants. Every few months, individuals go in and out of a period known as musth. When this happens, testosterone levels rise sharply and the male secretes a thick oil from the temporal glands on the sides of his head.
What happens to elephants when they leave their herd?
Once they leave their family herd at puberty, they spend the rest of their lives—thirty or more years—wandering the forests and fields alone. And, there is something that is particularly unusual about male elephants.
Do Elephants like to be alone?
Just as female elephants never like to be alone, and choose to spend their entire lives in the company of their mothers, sisters and daughters, the very opposite is true of adult males. Once they leave their family herd at puberty, they spend the rest of their lives—thirty or more years—wandering the forests and fields alone.