Elephants can socialise and forage in all-male groups, shows study

Male Asian elephants are often described as solitary. But the results of a 2026 study conducted in Rajaji National Park in Uttarakhand suggests that the picture may be more complex. Researchers found that males regularly form groups, and these associations are far from random.

Patterns of grouping shift with age, reproductive state and habitat. Many of these interactions unfold in open, human-used landscapes – the same spaces where negative interactions between people and elephants are often reported.

“Elephant responses to threats are context-based and vary across regions and populations. By understanding how individuals associate with one another, we can develop more targeted conflict-mitigation strategies,” says Abhimanyu Madhusudanan, a wildlife biologist at the Wildlife Institute of India and the corresponding author of the study.

Elephant group dynamics

The study recorded 706 elephants (excluding calves), of which 219 were males. Each sighting was logged to build individual histories. Researchers also recorded whether males were alone, in all-male groups or part of mixed herds, along with their age and reproductive state.

The team then analysed the data using spatially explicit capture-recapture, a method that estimates population size by tracking how often individual animals are detected and where those sightings occur.

From these sightings, the spatially explicit capture-recapture modelling estimated around 40 adult males in...

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