Female Asian elephant clans have age-based order but weak dominance resolution

The variation in dominance relationships in group-living species is often interpreted through socioecological frameworks that link social structures to resource-risk distributions. However, in elephants, such inferences are hindered by a lack of comparable assessments of within-group dominance in different species. To advance our understanding of elephant socioecology, we present here, the first study on agonistic and dominance relationships within female Asian elephant clans (most inclusive social groups), and compare our results with those from African savannah elephants. By analysing agonistic interactions, and dominance and association networks based on over four years of observations of five clans, we show that Asian elephants have a resolved but weakly structured within-clan dominance order. Female dyads showed unidirectionality, but triad motif structures of dominance networks suggested resolved dominance only in some clans. Older females were more dominant although there were moderate levels of reversals against age-based order and age difference did not dampen dyadic conflict. Neither older age nor dominant status conferred more central status in the female association network. Weak dominance resolution and the effects of age contrast with the stronger dominance and age-based order found in African savannah elephants. We identify potential socioecological and demographic explanations of female dominance in elephants.