Social life helps orphaned elephants overcome loss: studyAFP, PARISOrphaned elephants manage to overcome the loss of their mother by living in a herd, highlighting the importance of a social life for the species, according to a study. Scientists investigated the consequences of a mother elephant’s death on her child by examining the level of stress hormones in the excrement of 37 young elephants in Kenya between 2015 and 2016. Among the young elephants, 25 had lost their mother between one and 19 years before from poaching or drought. The results could guide orphanages to provide companions of the same age to help orphaned elephants. The study also concluded that releasing groups of orphaned elephants together after they were linked during captivity could facilitate their transition to living in the wild.
