Solidarity not unity! According to a British study that collected modern scientific knowledge about them, giraffes form complex social bonds, especially between females. A source of strength for the survival of young people and all endangered species. Detail from 30millionsdamis.fr.
Their eyesight dominates the African savannah. They reach four meters in height. In adulthood, until recently, giraffes were considered animals of poorly social character. A team of researchers from the University of Bristol (England) has collected more than 400 scientific studies published about them. Synthesize them published in the magazine Mammal Review (2/8/2021), however, does invoke a matriarchal social structure – based on maternal ancestry – whose complexity would be equivalent… to that of elephants, primates, or cetaceans!
The main role of the giraffe “grandmothers”
I’m amazed that such charismatic types could have been taught so little.
Zoe Muller, University of Bristol
If males only maintain relationships with their mother, females on the other hand will form strong bonds between them to take care of the young. Thus, when a giraffe dies, non-mother females also show signs of emotional distress. Additionally, giraffes are said to be among the few animal species—besides elephants, killer whales, and humans—that females are out of age when they stop participating in reproduction. ” My hypothesis is that giraffe “grandmothers” probably play an important role in the survival of the group members they are related to.says Zoe Muller, a biologist and co-author of the study, who interviewed him CNN. Grandmothers are more likely to be sources of knowledge for the group, while participating in the care of the youth ».
« The most surprising thing to me is that it took until 2021 to realize that giraffes have a complex social system.asks a biologist from the University of Bristol. I am amazed that such an attractive and well-known species could have been studied so little until recently. According to the authors, the improvement in knowledge about giraffes from 2010 is due in particular to the development of observational and monitoring tools. However, other mysteries, such as how people communicate with each other, remain to be solved. This knowledge will prove invaluable to better protection of this mammal, whose population has declined by 40% over the past 30 years, and as such is classified as ‘vulnerable’ on the IUCN Red List. Nature (IUCN).
