Elephant calves more likely to survive in the care of their grandmothers

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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