Simulated poaching affects global connectivity and efficiency in social networks of African savanna elephants - an exemplar of how human disturbance impacts group-living species
Authors: Wiśniewska Maggie , Puga-Gonzalez Ivan , Lee Phyllis , Moss Cynthia J. , Russell Gareth , Garnier Simon , Sueur Cédric 
Published: August 2020

Selective harvest, such as poaching, impacts group-living animals directly through mortality of individuals with desirable traits, and indirectly by altering the structure of their social networks. Understanding the relationship between the structural network changes and group performance in wild animals remains an outstanding problem. To address this knowledge gap, we evaluate the immediate effect of disturbance on group sociality in African savanna elephants — an example, group-living species threatened by poaching. Drawing on static association data from one free ranging population, we constructed 100 virtual networks; performed a series of experiments ‘poaching’ the oldest, socially central or random individuals; and quantified the immediate change in the theoretical indices of network connectivity and efficiency of social diffusion. Although the virtual networks never broke down, targeted elimination of the socially central conspecifics, regardless of age, decreased network connectivity and efficiency. These findings hint at the need to further study resilience by modeling network reorganization and interaction-mediated socioecological learning, empirical data permitting. Our work is unique in quantifying connectivity together with global efficiency in multiple virtual networks that represent the sociodemographic diversity of elephant populations likely found in the wild. The basic design of our simulation platform makes it adaptable for hypothesis testing about the consequences of anthropogenic disturbance or lethal management on social interactions in a variety of group-living species with limited, real-world data.

Author Summary

We consider the immediate response of animal groups to human disturbance by using the African savanna elephant as an example of a group-living species threatened by poaching. Previous research in one elephant population showed that poaching-induced mortality reduced social interaction among distantly related elephants, but not among close kin. Whether this type of resilience indicates that affected populations function similarity before and after poaching is an open problem. Understanding it is important because poaching often targets the largest and most socially and ecologically experienced group members. Drawing on empirical association data, we simulated poaching in 100 virtual elephant populations and eliminated the most senior or sociable members. Targeted poaching of sociable conspecifics was more impactful. Although it did not lead to population breakdown, it hampered theoretical features of interspecific associations that in other systems have been associated with group cohesion and the efficiency of transferring social information. Our findings suggest that further inquiry into the relationship between resilience to poaching and group performance is warranted. In addition, our simulation platform offers a generalizable basis for hypothesis testing in other social species, wild or captive, subject to exploitation by humans.