Breastfeeding Pattern of Sumatran Elephant (Elephas maximus

sumatranus) towards Their Calf at Tangkahan Conservation

Response Unit (CRU), District of Langkat, North Sumatera

Kaniwa Berliani

, Kansih Sri Hartini

and Hijah Musnur Majib Tanjung

Department of Biology, Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, Universitas Sumatera Utara,

Jalan Bioteknologi No. 1 Kampus USU, Medan, North Sumatera 20155, Indonesia

Department of Forestry, Faculty of Forestry, Universitas Sumatera Utara,

Jalan Tridharma Ujung No.1 Kampus USU, Medan, North Sumatera 20155, Indonesia

Keywords: Breastfeeding, Elephas maximus sumatranus, North Sumatera, Sumatran Elephant, Tangkahan

Abstract: One particular behavior of Sumatran Elephant (Elephas maximus sumatranus) is breastfeeding. This

behavior is important to keep the survivability of their calves. The aim of this research was to observe the

breastfeeding pattern of a mother elephant towards her calf. Research location was at Tangkahan CRU area,

Namo Sialang Village, Subdistrict of Batang Serangan, District of Langkat, North Sumatera. Research was

carried out using focal animal sampling combined with continuous sampling method. Main objects of this

research were 3 mother elephant (Agustin, Yuni, and Olive) and 3 baby elephant with approximately 2.5

years old (Cristopher, Albertina, and Eropa). Result showed that there is a difference in the duration and

frequency of breastfeeding depending on the gender of the baby elephant. Male baby elephants spent more

time breastfeeding than females, while the age of mother elephant also affect the breastfeeding behavior. An

older mother elephant that had more experience in parenting was observed to have better breastfeeding

pattern than other female elephants.

1 INTRODUCTION

Sumatran elephant (Elephas maximus sumatranus) is

a highly social type of animal that prefers to live in

groups. This behavior is important to protect its

group members (Wilson, 1975). The relationship

between a mother elephant and its calves is highly

close that mother elephant will act protective

towards its newborn calf. Various pattern of

parenting behavior of a mother elephant can affect

most of its daily activities. A mother elephant will

typically teach its offspring how to socialize and to

find their own food until they could survive on their

own. In addition, elephant parents will also punish

their calves to correct their behavior which can lead

into a risk.

The pregnancy process of a female elephant

could take up to 22 months and could only give birth

to one baby elephant. A pregnant female elephant is

usually accompanied by two to three other females

until the birth process. After the baby elephant is

born, it will be protected and taken care together

with other females in the group (Chelluri, 2009).

The parenting behavior of a mother elephant towards

its calf grows constantly (innate) through their habit

to live in groups.

A newborn baby elephant will be strictly

protected by its mother for about 10 to 15 years

(Joshi, 2009). A mother elephant will show its

parenting behavior and provides energy to take care

of its calf. In addition, a baby elephant is strongly

dependent to its parents to meet its daily feeding

need at the beginning of its growth during the

neonatal period (Poirier, 1972). The parenting

behavior of a mother elephant is shown in several

other behavior, one of which is breastfeeding.

During this process, a mother elephant will

breastfeed its calf for 3 years or more (Sukumar,

2003; Joshi, 2009).

Despite its importance in maintaining the

survival of its species, the information about

parenting behavior of a mother elephant, particularly

breastfeeding, has not yet been well studied in

Tangkahan. Thus, it is important to conduct a study

Berliani, K., Hartini, K. and Tanjung, H.

Breastfeeding Pattern of Sumatran Elephant (Elephas maximus sumatranus) towards Their Calf at Tangkahan Conservation Response Unit (CRU), District of Langkat, North Sumatera.

DOI: 10.5220/0010095100870092

In Proceedings of the International Conference of Science, Technology, Engineering, Environmental and Ramiﬁcation Researches (ICOSTEERR 2018) - Research in Industry 4.0, pages

87-92

ISBN: 978-989-758-449-7

and observe the feeding pattern of a mother elephant

in order to obtain a beneficial information to support

the ex-situ conservation management of Sumatran

elephant at Tangkahan CRU, Langkat, North

Sumatera.

2 MATERIALS AND METHODS

2.1 Time and Study Site

This research was done from May to June 2018,

while the survey about the elephant behavior has

been previously done from March 2018. Research

location was at Tangkahan Conservation Response

Unit (CRU) area, NamoSialang Village, Subdistrict

of Batang Serangan, District of Langkat, North

Sumatera. Tangkahan itself is a buffer zone of

Gunung Leuser National Park and has been utilized

as ecotourism site since May 19

2001, but only

become CRU area on December 2002.

2.2 Objects

The main object of this research was Sumatran

Elephant (Elephas maximus Sumatranus) i.e. 3

mother elephants (Agustin, Yuni, and Olive) and 3

baby elephants with the age of approximately 2.5

years old (Cristopher, Albertina, and Eropa) out of 9

elephant individuals in Tangkahan CRU.

2.3 Materials

Materials used in this study were stopwatch (to limit

the observation interval), stationary and tally sheet

(to record the data), video camera (to observe the

elephant behavior), and digital camera (to take

picture of the research object).

2.4 Methodology

Research method about feeding pattern of mother

elephant used in this study was descriptive

observational combining focal animal sampling and

continuous sampling method (Martin, 1993).

2.5 Data Collection

Data collection was done using focal animal

sampling method towards the chosen main research

object to observe the parenting behavior but not

limiting its activity. This method can collect the data

of parenting behavior of mother elephant in detail.

Breastfeeding activity of the elephant was recorded

on the determined time frequency. The activity and

interaction of each elephant individuals were

observed every five minutes for 10 hours a day for a

total of 100 hours observation.

2.6 Data Analysis

Data about parental behavior of mother elephants

was processed using descriptive analysis to

particularly provide an overview of the parental

behavior towards its calf. In addition, the frequency

percentage of interaction behavior between mother

and baby elephant can be determined using the

formula below:

Tabulation of the quantitative data is subsequently served

using graphics and diagrams.

3 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Parenting behavior of a mother elephant towards its

calf can be expressed by showing different

behaviors, one of which is breastfeeding. Based on

100 hours of observation on the breastfeeding

activity of 3 mother elephants towards their calves,

516 sampling spots with 32,505 seconds or 541.75

minutes has been obtained. During the sampling

collection, all three of the mother and baby elephant

were observed to have good health condition, as the

observation did not cause any alternation towards

their daily activity in the CRU area. Observation

results showed that there is a difference of

breastfeeding pattern on mother elephants towards

their calves.

3.1 Breastfeeding Duration of Mother

Elephant

The breastfeeding duration was different for each

mother elephants during the observation. During the

100 hours observation, mother elephant “Olive”

breastfed her calf “Eropa” for 7910 seconds or

131.83 minutes. Olive was observed to spend her

time differently each day for the 10 days of

observation. It can be seen on Figure 1 that the

average duration for Olive to breastfed Eropa was

averaged at 13.18 minutes a day. Olive spent her

time at breastfeeding most on the fifth day of

observation, as during that day Olive showed the

% Frequency = Frequency of behavior x 100%

Total frequency of behavior

ICOSTEERR 2018 - International Conference of Science, Technology, Engineering, Environmental and Ramiﬁcation Researches

least movement for grazing or browsing. Mother

elephants prefer to consume the feed given by CRU

management, to allow their calves easily reach their

nipple and feed from it.

Figure 1: Duration of breastfeeding between mother elephant “Olive” towards its calf “Eropa”

Figure 2: Duration of breastfeeding between mother elephant “Yuni” towards its calf “Albertina”

Figure 3: Duration of breastfeeding between mother elephant “Agustin” towards its calf “Cristopher”

Breastfeeding Pattern of Sumatran Elephant (Elephas maximus sumatranus) towards Their Calf at Tangkahan Conservation Response Unit

(CRU), District of Langkat, North Sumatera

On the other hand, the least time Olive spent for

breastfeeding was at day 4 with only 6.42 minutes.

During this day, Olive was observed to spend more

time grazing and browsing the jungle, which

consequently caused her to have less time

breastfeeding. Her calf, Eropa, was also observed to

imitate her feeding activity, which caused her to be

satisfied by consuming the natural feed. Moss

(1983) stated that baby elephant will imitate the

feeding activity of their parents. During the

observation time, the baby elephant spent only 6

times breastfeeding with her mother.

As the baby elephants grow, they will imitate the

feeding behavior of their parents and thus improving

their ability to find and consume their natural food in

the wild. Sukumar (2003) reported that the ability of

a baby elephant to imitate and find their own food

will continuously grow until they reached 3 years

old or more. This was shown by the ability of a baby

elephant to revoke the grass using their trunk in the

jungle, following the feeding activity of their parents

(Nair, 1983). Their ability to look for food was also

shown in group when baby elephants imitated and

interacted with other elephants in exploration for

food up to the local agricultural field, which may

cause a conflict between human and elephant group

(Berliani, 2016; Berliani, 2017).

It can be seen from the Figure 2 that mother

elephant “Yuni” breastfed her female calf

“Albertina” for up to 9,460 seconds or 156.67

minutes. In general, it can be concluded that mother

elephant “Yuni’ spent more time breastfeeding

compared to “Olive”. The average time of Yuni

breastfed Albertina was approximately 15.77

minutes a day. This could be due to the age

difference between Yuni and Olive, which affects

the parenting behavior towards their calves. Yuni is

known to be older than Olive, and thus had more

experience of parenting and taking care of her calf.

Based on our observation, Yuni regularly breastfed

Albertina, even during the movement of grazing and

browsing activity. When Albertina tried to reach

Yuni’s nipple, she will stop and let Albertina feed

from it.

Mother elephant Agustin and Yuni had

approximately similar age, which made them both to

give similar parenting behavior. Unlike the other

elephants in this study, mother elephant “Agustin”

breastfed her baby male elephant “Cristopher”.

During the 100 hours of observation, Agustin was

recorded to breastfed Cristopher for 15,135 seconds

or 252.25 minutes. It can be seen on Figure 3 that

the average duration of Cristopher to breastfeed was

at 25.22 minutes each day. Cristopher was observed

to be breastfed during the fourth and tenth day of

observation at 33.58 and 33.42 minutes respectively.

Cristopher was also observed to be more active

compared to other baby elephants. His activity

needed more energy, which caused him to get

breastfed more in order to fulfil his daily feed

requirement. Sukumar [5] stated that mother

elephants did not only provide nutritional intake for

their calves, but also maintain their average growth,

physical condition, and reproduction ability.

Subsequently, the behavior of these mother

elephants are expected to care for their calves and

thus succeeded their reproduction.

3.2 Breastfeeding Frequency of Mother

Elephant

Observation on this research revealed that mother

elephant expressed their breastfeeding behavior

continuously every day. The repetition of this

feeding behavior was observed for 100 hours

between mother and baby elephants. This interaction

revealed the frequency of daily feeding process, and

thus any changes in the breastfeeding behavior and

frequency can be observed. Figure 4 showed the

frequency percentage of breastfeeding behavior of

mother elephant “Agustin” was higher compared to

Yuni and Olive. The highest frequency percentage

of Agustin was at day 4 and 10. This data showed

that Agustin used 14.54% of observation period to

breastfeed on both day 4 and 10 during the 100

hours observation. On the other hand, mother

elephant “Olive” used 14.50% of observation period

to breastfeed on day 5 while Yuni used only 12.34%

of observation period to breastfeed on day 1 and 3.

During observation, the frequency percentage of

breastfeeding behavior of each mother elephant

showed differences each day. It can be observed that

the higher frequency percentage of breastfeeding

one mother elephant used, the longer the duration

will be on the same day, and vice versa. Thus, it can

be concluded that the frequency percentage of

breastfeeding behavior on a mother elephant was

directly proportional with the duration spent. In

general, Agustin and her calf Cristopher had the

highest frequency percentage of breastfeeding

compared to other mother and baby elephants. This

could be due to the sex difference of baby elephant

causing different amount of energy intake to their

body. In addition, mother elephant was also

observed to give better care for male calf. Lee and

Moss (1995) recorded that baby elephants showed

different breastfeeding behavior from 0 to 54

months. Furthermore, Lee and Moss (1986)

ICOSTEERR 2018 - International Conference of Science, Technology, Engineering, Environmental and Ramiﬁcation Researches

explained that breastfeeding frequency and duration

of male baby elephant was higher than females. This

pattern is consistent until the baby elephant reached

3 years old.

Figure 4: Frequency percentage of breastfeeding behavior of mother elephants towards their calves

Mother elephants tend to give better care for male

baby elephants. Sukumar (2003) explained that mother

elephants invested more time to take care of male calves

for up to 2 – 5 months compared to female calves. This is

associated with the demographic term on elephant

population, in which the increment of parental care on

male calves is expected to promote the success of

reproduction. Furthermore, Trivers and Willard (1973)

reported that mother elephant will spend more time

breastfeeding male calves as they grow faster compared to

females. Nevertheless, many factors could affect the

survivability of long-living animals, including physical

condition, annual climate, food availability, population

density, etc

.4 CONCLUSIONS

Duration and frequency percentage of each mother

elephant in this study showed differences during the 100

hours observation. Higher frequency percentage of

breastfeeding one mother elephant used will lead to longer

duration of breastfeeding on the same day, and vice versa.

The frequency percentage of breastfeeding behavior on a

mother elephant was directly proportional with the

duration spent. Male calves were known to spend more

duration for breastfeeding compared to females. This

could be due to faster growth of male calves. In addition,

the age of mother elephant also affects their breastfeeding

behavior. Older mother elephants will have more

experience parenting and thus has better feeding pattern

than other elephants which is consistence to the existing

theory.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The authors gratefully acknowledge that this

research is supported by Lembaga Penelitian Universitas

Sumatera Utara. The support is under research grant

TALENTA USU of year 2018 Contract Number

2590/UN5.1.R/PPM/2018.

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ICOSTEERR 2018 - International Conference of Science, Technology, Engineering, Environmental and Ramiﬁcation Researches