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To understand why elephants migrate in herds, it's important to understand elephant's social structure.

Elephants are highly social animals. This means that they like the company of other elephants. Because they spend so much time together, they have developed a social structure known as a matriarchal society, with a female-based hierarchy.

As an effective survival strategy, grandmothers, mothers, and daughters tend to stay together for a lifetime and help each other raise their babies. Grown males are bigger and better suited for solitary life or for living in smaller groups, but occasionally, males will keep company with a herd. Regardless of their lifestyle, the males follow along on migrations.

Because of the size and structure of an elephant's brain, they have amazing memories and they can remember everything over the course of their lifetime, which is a fairly long time.

The oldest female of a group is usually the matriarch and leads the rest of the group. Over her lifetime, she has learned the best lands for food and water are found and she knows the paths to get her herd there. She has also experienced many droughts and famines. Surviving in times of drought and famine is much trickier than in plenteous times. It takes her years to learn the intricacies of survival when times are tough because there are many variables that affect the decision on a destination.

An older female will have learned from those who lived before her, where water and food can be found in the very worst of times. It takes many, many years for her to learn this because weather cycles are not constant and the solution is not the same every year.

A critical survival tool is handing the matriarch's knowledge down to her daughters and daughters' daughters to prepare them to become matriarchs when she is gone. It takes just as many years for her to teach younger females everything she has learned, as it did for her to learn them.

Elephants migrate seasonally for food and water every year and they are dependent on their matriarch for survival. Without her, they would perish. This is why they always migrate in herds.

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8y ago
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14y ago

All gorillas live in groups. The males are dominant in these groups, and the dominant male, called the Silverback, is the leader. They travel together while they forage, and they groom each other to reinforce family bonds.

An interesting fact about gorillas is that they keep track of where they've eaten. This way, they allow plants that they've foraged on to regrow before they come back for more.

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15y ago

No They Do Not Travel In Small Groups They Travel In Large Groups === ===

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12y ago

because the need more apes so they dont get hurt as much and to protect

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12y ago

The simple answer is "strength in numbers." Chimpanzee communities can be as large as 150 individuals, but they normally break up into satellite family units while searching for food.

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Q: Do gorillas travel in small groups?
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