Entry and aggregation at a Central African bai reveal social patterns in the elusive forest elephant Loxodonta cyclotis

Social relationships are shaped by ecological conditions, giving rise to diverse societies even among related species. Among elephants, females exhibit close, often familial bonds with some degree of philopatry and fission–fusion dynamics. Forest elephant sociality is the least studied species, their ecology differs from that savannah Asian elephants. We use over 15 years data an individually identified population using Dzanga Bai forest clearing in Central African Republic characterize social patterns adult female elephants two contexts, when entering within clearing. properties were nonrandom highly stable study period both contexts. Composition aggregations indicated considerable mixing females, while association groups bai together limited composition, likely representing core units. The co-entry set exhibited distinct communities not apparent co-occurrence set. In contrast network centrality age negatively correlated, suggesting a muted or absent matriarch hub role at broader level than family Temporal community analyses contexts may represent processes, former latter driven shared resource use. Our results point potentially need for families fission into small units because competition highlight importance aggregation context interpreting indices.