Up till now the understood role of male elephants was to occasionally turn on and sire young. Apart from that they roamed alone and spent much of their time, roaming large areas and occasionally meeting up with other balls to form loose coalitions for time.
However a new study has turned that idea on its head. The reputation of the matriarch has holding the memory of the herd appears to not be complete.
in the same way that young females learn from the matriarch of there herd that they grow up in, young males once pushed out of their maternal herd will learn from the older males.
These skills are essential for the long-term survival of elephants.
The study published in scientific report, followed 1250 male elephants in Botswana. the problem has always been that due to the fact that you mail elephants room for large areas it has been much harder to study them in detail to the same level that females are investigated.
However this potentially throws a big spanner in the works for the trophy hunting industry. The animals that are most wanted are those with large tusks, however by definition these animals are the oldest and most experienced male elephants. Therefore well the the controlled hunting may indeed bring in much needed money for the reserve it takes part in, these animals are essential for the survival of the species. It is certainly true that Hunters do not want to kill younger elephants the smaller tusks, however perhaps now a new decision needs to be made about how sustainable the legal use of elephant actually impacts the health of the entire population.