Date: June 10, 2016
Source: Suomen Akatemia (Academy
of Finland)
Among the Asian elephants, the
grandmothers have a significant role. They ensure the survival of the calves
and breeding success for their daughters.
Grandmothers often provide vital
childcare in human communities across the world. In traditional societies such
help even increases grandchildren's survival prospects and leads to shorter
birth intervals for the daughters. In a new study, a research group from the
University of Turku in Finland has now discovered that a similar phenomenon
exist among the elephants in Myanmar.
"We found that calves of
young elephant mothers under 20 years of age had eight times lower mortality
risk if the grandmother resided in the same location compared to calves whose
grandmother was not present," says Dr. Mirkka Lahdenperä, the lead author
of the study.
Resident grandmothers also
decreased their daughters' inter-birth intervals by one year, so that
altogether more grandcalves were born when the grandmothers were part of the
family. Grandmothers with own recent calves were as beneficial to their
daughter's calves as grandmothers who had already stopped reproducing.
"Grandmothers may be particularly
important for the reproductive success of their inexperienced adult daughters.
Older daughters, on the other hand, would have already gained enough experience
in calf rearing to succeed without the help of their mother," says Academy
Professor Virpi Lummaa.
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