Read it a few times to understand the core message because the thesis and title are slightly self-evident i.e. more isolation causes less socializing. But the crux seems to be:
> "We see individual elephants leaving and possibly dying at accelerating rates, but new individuals are not coming into the population,” said Madsen. “With fewer individuals in the population, those who are left will naturally have fewer relationships. However, the remaining elephants are also changing their relationships with each other."
In my opinion "dying at accelerating rates" is the/a key takeaway. Notably climate change doesn't seem to be explicitly mentioned and hate to see poaching be a direct cause:
> Many elephant populations are already impacted through deaths resulting from poaching and conflicts with humans. Other contributing factors may be disruptions in habitat connectivity and less food available...
Other comments mention other intelligent and social species and this reminds me of Puget Sound Southern resident killer whales and their decrease in food availability and offspring viability.
Well there are more microbes around us than there are stars in the universe. They survive without smart phones, intelligence, religion, society and stories that need to fit in a 3 inch chimp brain about the meaning of it all. One of them recently killed 6 million people. Life goes on.
Glad to see things like this are being funded. It’s easy to forget we aren’t the only smart, social creatures on the planet dealing with this rapidly changing world.
Hat tip to the elephants for not being sociopaths like the Orca. Or otters.
Maybe the elephants and octopus should form a brilliant animals but not sociopaths club.
> "We see individual elephants leaving and possibly dying at accelerating rates, but new individuals are not coming into the population,” said Madsen. “With fewer individuals in the population, those who are left will naturally have fewer relationships. However, the remaining elephants are also changing their relationships with each other."
In my opinion "dying at accelerating rates" is the/a key takeaway. Notably climate change doesn't seem to be explicitly mentioned and hate to see poaching be a direct cause:
> Many elephant populations are already impacted through deaths resulting from poaching and conflicts with humans. Other contributing factors may be disruptions in habitat connectivity and less food available...
Other comments mention other intelligent and social species and this reminds me of Puget Sound Southern resident killer whales and their decrease in food availability and offspring viability.
(like bees?)
Hat tip to the elephants for not being sociopaths like the Orca. Or otters.
Maybe the elephants and octopus should form a brilliant animals but not sociopaths club.