Scarcity induces elephant social exclusion

Field observations in Namibia’s Etosha show that during extreme dry conditions matriarchal elephant families can shift from inclusive, care‑based networks to aggressively policing waterholes, sometimes expelling lower‑ranked adult females and their calves. The behaviour appears to be an adaptive cultural response to resource limits rather than fixed species‑typical cooperation. — If climate change increases frequent scarcity, managers and policymakers must anticipate not only population declines but also altered social dynamics that affect conservation interventions, human–wildlife conflict, and ecosystem services.