Social Spacing

Elephants have home ranges, which range from 14 kilometers squared to 3,500 kilometers squared. The size depends on the sustainability of the land (Estes 1991). Elephants have a home range rather than a territory because the resources utilized are typically too large to be economically defensible. Since elephants spend 16 hours a day eating, they do not have the time to defend the resources they utilize (Moss 1982). Predation pressure on young elephants is low, so there is not a need for a protected area for the young.
The family unit often stays close together, with members often being within 50 meters of another member. The family units in a bond group often stay within a kilometer of each other (Estes 1991). During dry seasons, elephants in a family unit may separate to best utilize scarce resources. The members of a family unit emit low frequency calls to communicate over these long distances. Atmospheric conditions effect how far these calls can travel; under optimal conditions the calls can travel over 10 kilometers (Garstang. Larom, Raspet, & Lindeque 1995).
Bulls travel widely while they are in musth, searching for females to mate with. Musth is a period of heightened sexual and aggressive behavior in males. Bulls do not establish mating territories because females in estrous are widely scattered and competitions over mates is settled by whether a bull is in musth and his hierarchical status. During non-musth periods, bulls often live in small retirement areas with other bulls (Estes 1991).