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Have you heard of the term “Comfort-Suckling?”
Learn All About it Here!
In Episode 3 of our HERD Elephant Behaviour Series, we delve not only into the behaviour of comfort suckling, but we have included an additional behaviour that is often seen at the same time as comfort -suckling, and that is the “Suckle-Stance”. The behaviour Comfort-Suckling can be seen in one context only, which is Calf Reassurance and protection – making it easy to identify and classify. The behaviour “Suckle-Stance” can be seen in two different contexts, namely Birth and Calf Nourishment and Weaning. The term comfort-suckling pertains to elephant calves that are in fact suckling from a female in their herd that is not lactating, or producing milk. As the Jabulani herd is on contraception, the females are unable to reproduce and therefore do not produce milk.
You can read more about that in this blog post: https://herd.org.za/blog/why-the-elephants-are-on-contraception-what-it-means/
Or watch the video:
We would like to take this opportunity once again, to thank Elephant Voices for sharing all their research on their public platform called the Elephant Ethogram, which provides the world with all this incredible insight into elephant behaviours.
View the Elephant Ethogram by Elephant Voices >
** Our elephant behaviour videos showcase various elephant behaviours through our video archives that feature a unique semi-habituated herd, called the Jabulani Herd. By making use of the information available on the Elephant Ethogram, a public platform created and shared freely by the team at Elephant Voices, we are showcasing some of the more commonly seen physical behaviours by sharing a few examples of individual behaviours in succession. All behaviours are always open to interpretation and based on numerous contributing factors which are taken into consideration.**
