The Live Nagpur
  • Nagpur City
  • Nagpur Education
  • Nagpur Sports
  • Business
  • Crime
  • Entertainment & Lifestyle
  • Featured
  • Health & Wellness
  • Nation
  • Politics
  • Trending
  • Vidarbha
  • Obituary

The Live Nagpur

  • Home
  • Nagpur City
  • Politics
  • Business
  • Nagpur Education
  • Entertainment
  • Nagpur Sports
  • Health
  • Vidarbha
  • Crime
  • Obituary
Featured

Asian elephant cubs show handedness in trunk behaviour earlier than adult usage of trunks

by TLN Team July 22, 2020July 22, 2020
written by TLN Team July 22, 2020July 22, 2020
Asian elephant cubs show handedness in trunk behaviour earlier than adult usage of trunks

Asian elephant calves offer an interesting system to study the development of behaviour. They are born with a well-developed sensory system technically called precocial and are capable of locomotion hours after birth. However, they are dependent on their mothers for nutrition, physical protection, and social support for a prolonged period, allowing them ample time and opportunity to learn and perfect the skills necessary for independent survival. The calves can walk soon after birth but are incapable of using their trunk to pick up objects and pull grass.

Trying to probe the peculiarity of behaviour of elephants which stands out against many precocial species, researchers from Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research (JNCASR) an autonomous institute of the Department of Science & Technology, Government of India found that though their trunks take time to develop adult-like usage, they develop handedness (right or left-side bias) in trunk usage quite early. The study was published recently in the ‘International Journal of Developmental Biology’.

The team of researchers observed 30 unique calves from 11 distinct clans (female social groups) in Kabini Elephant Project in Nagarahole and Bandipur National Parks from December 2015 to December 2017 to look at the development of trunk motor control, laterality — or side preference/handedness — in trunk usage, and various social and non-social behaviours. They found that whereas calves took about 6 months to achieve fine motor control of the trunk to pluck grass in an adult-like manner, even young calves — those below 3 months of age — showed handedness (right or left-side bias) in trunk usage. It suggests that such handedness might be innate in Asian elephants. This would be analogous to human infants showing right-handedness or left-handedness soon after birth.

In humans, the early expression of hand-preference and consistency in handedness have been linked to advanced language skills. The researchers plan to study if there is any advantage to having an early emergence of trunk laterality.

The JNCASR team also identified 81 unique calf behaviours and classified them based on their level of adeptness in expression. It was observed that as calves grew, they spent less time resting and more time feeding. Resting-related behaviours and certain grooming behaviours and, many social and exploration related behaviours were expressed by calves in adult-like adeptness from a young age, whereas behaviours that required trunk usage, such as feeding, developed gradually and were elaborately expressed when trunk motor control was sufficiently achieved (6-9 months). The researchers described the ontogeny of behaviour in Asian elephant calves for the first time in the wild.

The team also looked at mother-calf synchrony in behaviours. Since adults spend most of their waking hours in feeding but not the calves, mother-calf behavioural synchrony during the initial few months of a calf was low; however, as calves began to develop trunk motor trunk and reduced the time spent in resting, mother-calf behavioural synchrony steadily increased. Behavioural synchrony is necessary for two individuals to maintain cohesiveness, and, by extension, it is necessary for a set of individuals to remain as a group. This, along with a calf’s need for physical protection, leads to instances when mother and/ or calves take an active effort to synchronise their behaviours. As the physiological needs of a young calf that is growing up are starkly different from that of its mother, often their behavioural categories do not match; nevertheless, they almost always maintain close physical distance, the study pointed out.

0 comment
FacebookTwitterLinkedin
TLN Team

previous post
DGGI busts racket for tax evasion worth more than Rs 72 crore of clandestine clearance of cigarettes
next post
COVID-19 update: 122 new cases in Nagpur, tally reaches 3293

You may also like

Delicious flavour of Pulse now launched in Pulse...

March 8, 2021

CM Uddhav Thackeray applauds courage and contribution of...

March 8, 2021

Passionate Female Motorcycle Riders ‘Braking’ Stereotypes

March 8, 2021

The Journey of Dr. Richa Jain, a self-made...

March 8, 2021

Here’s why a person swipes right a profile...

March 7, 2021

‘Indulgence’ is a magical place for all luxury...

March 7, 2021

Uber pledges free rides worth Rs 10 cr...

March 6, 2021

Anirban Ghosh takes charge as Executive Director &...

March 6, 2021

Believe in yourself, then dream & then work...

March 6, 2021

Manoj Tiwari, Ravi Kishan and Sapna Choudhary to...

March 5, 2021

Leave a Comment Cancel Reply

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.



Trending News

  • 18 services under RTO moves online

    March 5, 2021
  • COVID-19: Central Govt issues fresh guidelines for restaurants, shopping malls

    March 5, 2021
  • Yog Nritya spreading fitness in city gardens

    March 3, 2021
  • In10 Media Network’s New Hindi General Entertainment Channel ‘Ishara – Zindagi Ka Nazara’

    March 1, 2021
  • Sony launches digital voice recorder PCM-A10 for supreme sound, superior recording

    March 1, 2021

Important Links

  • Politics
  • Crime
  • Business
  • Education
  • Entertainment
  • Sports

Available on Playstore & Coming Soon on Appstore

Search

July 2020
M T W T F S S
« Jun   Aug »
 12345
6789101112
13141516171819
20212223242526
2728293031  

Sign-Up Form

Subscribe my Newsletter for new blog posts, tips & new photos. Let's stay updated!

Footer Logo
  • Nagpur City
  • Nagpur Education
  • Nagpur Sports
  • Business
  • Crime
  • Entertainment & Lifestyle
  • Featured
  • Health & Wellness
  • Nation
  • Politics
  • Trending
  • Vidarbha
  • Obituary
  • Privacy Policy
  • Disclaimer
  • Cookie Policy
  • Terms Of Use
  • Advertise with Us
  • Work with us
  • Contact Us

© 2020 - The Live Nagpur . All Rights Reserved.