JSM 2005 - Toronto

Abstract #304792

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Legend: = Applied Session, = Theme Session, = Presenter
Activity Number: 495
Type: Contributed
Date/Time: Thursday, August 11, 2005 : 8:30 AM to 10:20 AM
Sponsor: Social Statistics Section
Abstract - #304792
Title: Quantifying Elephant Social Structure: Using a Bayesian Bilinear Mixed Effects Model to Elicit Qualities of Elephant Behavior
Author(s): Eric Vance*+
Companies: Duke University
Address: 214D Old Chemistry Bldg, Durham, NC, 27708-0251, United States
Keywords: social space ; social networks ; dyadic data
Abstract:

Elephant social structure is easily recognized but not well understood. In this paper, I use a bilinear mixed-effects model for dyadic data proposed by Hoff (2005) to isolate several key components of elephant social behavior. The data I use are three years of observations of wild elephants in Kenya made on elephant pairs within established families. The positions of the elephants in an unobserved latent social space are estimated from the data then used to create a pairwise interaction effect in the model. These pair-specific interactions are treated as mean-zero random effects. The model includes other variables that allow wildlife biologists to test assumptions about elephant social structure and develop new theories of why and how elephants interact; steps toward the ultimate goal of understanding the evolution of social structure in mammals.

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