The significance of matriarchal experience for effective leadership in African elephant

African elephants maintain highly complex social structures in which dominant females lead
sub-groups of related females and their dependent offspring. Matriarchs are assumed to play
a key leadership role and to be integral for the survival and fitness of their family group. In
particular, older matriarchs with correspondingly more experience are posited to be superior
leaders. Recent research supports this: there is evidence for groups led by older matriarchs
responding more effectively to the threat of lion predation, having enhanced social
knowledge of the wider elephant network and making superior decisions during extreme
climatic events sufficient to result in survival and reproductive benefits for them and their
families. However, the mechanisms by which the matriarch co-ordinates group behaviour and
the extent to which group members survival strategies depend on learnt strategies from the
matriarch, are unknown. If the matriarch has superior knowledge in the realms of
navigational ability, risk proneness, threat perception and social networks, then the loss of a
matriarch, or the establishment of a young and inexperienced matriarch may have farreaching
consequences. This is highly relevant as (i) matriarchs suffer selective-removal at
the behest of the ivory trade due to their larger size and (ii) rapidly changing environments
manifest in novel challenges which may demand effective leadership for elephant survival and reproduction.