BRIGHTON, England, March 16 (UPI) -- U.K. researchers say in elephants, age and experience win out over youth when it comes to herd leadership.
Scientists at the University of Sussex say elephant matriarchs 60 years of age or older were better at accurately assessing threats to the herd in a simulated crisis than younger matriarchs were, ScienceNews.org reported Tuesday.
When subjected to recordings of various lion roars, elephant groups with older matriarchs grew especially defensive at the sound of male cats while younger matriarchs' families under-reacted, researcher Karen McComb said.
The older females were right to be wary, McComb says. While male lions rarely attack an elephant, a single male can bring down an elephant calf.
McComb said studying leadership among animals has become an active research area.
"People have become intrigued by some of the parallels between the sorts of characteristics that seem to define a leader in animals and in humans," McComb said.
The findings support the general observation that older individuals show more leadership in tasks requiring specialized knowledge.
"There is an interesting trade-off here, which certainly applies to humans and maybe elephants as well," said Mark van Vugt of VU University Amsterdam, who studies the evolution of leadership.
"The group might want a young, fit and aggressive leader to defend the group -- the Schwarzenegger type -- but at the same time might want an older, more experienced leader … to make an accurate assessment of the dangers in the situation."
Van Vugt apparently was referring to Arnold Schwarzenegger, the 63-year-old former body builder and action film star who just left office after serving seven-plus years as governor of California.
