Elephant Rank Was Linked to Stress Levels After Helicopter Disturbance

October 2, 2026

Research: Behaviour, Physiology, Ecology

African Bush Elephants (Loxodonta africana) live in social groups, but individuals may not respond to human disturbance in the same way. Researchers studied how elephants’ social relationships and environmental conditions were associated with glucocorticoid metabolites in their dung. These are breakdown products of hormones that help regulate energy availability during physiological challenges. Their concentration in dung indicates hormonal activity over a preceding period, not exactly how frightened or distressed an elephant felt.

The study followed elephants in a fenced reserve, combining dung samples with information on behaviour, social relationships and disturbance. Helicopter use was associated with higher glucocorticoid metabolite levels. The association between rank and these levels changed with the disturbance context: after disturbance, lower-ranking elephants had higher levels than higher-ranking elephants, while in conditions with little disturbance the pattern was reversed.

Social connections were also associated with lower levels, but only when there was no disturbance. By contrast, weather, water availability and season were not associated with the levels in the analysis. Together, these findings suggest that social relationships do not have a uniform link to elephants’ physiology; the association depends on the conditions they face.

If social position and relationships are linked to physiological responses during disturbance, the potential costs of management activities may not be shared equally among elephants. Taking social context into account could therefore help inform management of social animals. The study concerns a small, fenced population, so its findings should not automatically be assumed to apply to other African Bush Elephant populations. This research is a preprint and has not been peer reviewed.

Sources and image credit

Sociality shapes context-dependent stress responses to anthropogenic disturbance in African elephantsPrimærkilde: preprint og sammendrag med studiedato og hovedfunn. Ikke fagfellevurdert.

Image: Wild African savanna elephant at Phinda Private Game Reserve, South Africa. Photo: Håvard Rosenlund / Wildlife Vagabond. Representative image. · © Håvard Rosenlund. All rights reserved · Source