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A review of the social behaviour of the giraffe Giraffa camelopardalis: a misunderstood but socially complex species

1. Until around 2000, giraffe Giraffa camelopardalis were believed to have no social structure. Despite a resurgence of interest in giraffe behaviour in around 2010, most studies are of isolated populations, making it difficult to draw general conclusions. Although it is now well established that giraffe social organisation is non-random, there is little consensus as to what influences preferred and avoided associations or the underpinning mechanisms. 2. We test two hypotheses: first, giraffe have a complex cooperative social system, exhibited

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Determination of individual home range size and group composition of the main giraffe population at Entabeni Game Reserve

Large variations in giraffe home range size have been reported in previous studies, where individual home ranges usually overlap. The social structure of giraffe populations is complex and not much research has been done on their group size and group composition. To be able to identify the individual giraffe roaming the lower escarpment of Entabeni Game Reserve (EGR), Limpopo, South Africa an identification catalogue was initially created in February 2011. A total number of 45 giraffe were individually identified in

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Beast Buddies – Do Animals Have Friends?

That issue of preferred associates comes close to the human notion of friendship, and it can prove just as important in understanding animal goings-on as it does in people watching. Baboons, bats, and dozens of other animals have been studied from this perspective. Biologists may start by asking whether individuals prefer to hang out with particular buddies. But other questions soon pop up. Does the sex or kinship of a companion matter? Are there benefits to the association? The answers

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Structure of herd in giraffe: Developmental changes of social relationship in calves

In the present study, I aim to clarify social structure and differences of social interaction among different aged giraffe’s (Giraffa Camelopardelis) in Katavi National Park, Tanzania. I recorded giraffe’s sex, herd size and individual identify by pattern of marking on their necks. I estimated age on the basis of body size. The study about social structure was conducted around HQ and IKUU. As a result, I observed more calves around HQ than IKUU. A previous study revealed that predation pressure

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Current knowledge about the social organisation of giraffes

The Etosha Giraffe Research project in Namibia focuses on the social relationships among giraffes, which have previously been described as having little social structure nor strong bonds between individuals (Dagg and Foster, 1976; Le Pendu et al., 2000; Moss, 1976). Giraffes live in a fission-fusion society characterised by frequent changes of associates, with males adopting a roaming strategy to search for widely distributed female groups (Bashaw et al., 2007; Bercovitch et al., 2006; Dagg and Foster, 1976; Shorrocks and Croft,

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Giraffe social preferences are context dependent

The dynamic nature of animal societies often hides multiple layers of complexity. The field of animal behaviour is rapidly advancing with the development of increasingly sophisticated analytical methods that allow scientists to identify complex and nuanced drivers of social patterns. The resurgent interest in giraffe sociality illustrates this by challenging the early view that individuals interact at random; it became clear that, instead, giraffes can be organized into multilevel societies, apparently founded on preferred associations. However, it is unclear whether

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The first description of dominance hierarchy in captive giraffe: Not loose and egalitarian, but clear and linear

Wild giraffes live in extensive groups in the fission fusion system, maintaining long social distances and loose social bonds. Within these groups, resources are widely distributed, agonistic encounters are scarce and the dominance hierarchy was reported in males only, while never deeply analysed. In captivity, the possibility to maintain inter-individual distances is limited and part of the resources is not evenly distributed. Consequently, we suggest that agonistic encounters should be more frequent, leading to the establishment of the dominance hierarchy.

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Giraffes (Giraffa camelopardalis peralta) of Niger

Thirty years ago giraffes were found all over the Sudano-Sahelian area, from Mauritania to Chad. Over the last 20 years, due to loss of habitat and poaching, giraffe populations have decreased. In Niger large herds were present in the Tanout area, between Agadez and Zinder, but they disappeared because of recurring drought. During the eighties, giraffes were present in the Ayorou area, but suddenly disappeared because of poaching along the Malian border and the 1984 drought. Today the sub-species Giraffa

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Multilevel social organization and space use in reticulated giraffe (Giraffa camelopardalis)

It is increasingly recognized that association patterns of most gregarious animals are nonrandom. However, nonrandom patterns can emerge in any population that exhibits spatial structure, even if individuals associate randomly. In species that lack clearly differentiated social relationships characteristic of socially complex mammals, space use patterns must be considered alongside association patterns in order to establish whether nonrandom association patterns are determined by underlying social structure or are merely an artifact of spatial structure. In this study, we simultaneously consider

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Linking social and pathogen transmission networks using microbial genetics in giraffe (Giraffa camelopardalis)

Although network analysis has drawn considerable attention as a promising tool for disease ecology, empirical research has been hindered by limitations in detecting the occurrence of pathogen transmission (who transmitted to whom) within social networks. Using a novel approach, we utilize the genetics of a diverse microbe, Escherichia coli, to infer where direct or indirect transmission has occurred and use these data to construct transmission networks for a wild giraffe population (Giraffe camelopardalis). Individuals were considered to be a part

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