Even elephants hate being lonely!

Solitary animals show more signs of stress than those in a group

From anxiety to depression, loneliness is known to have a range of unpleasant symptoms in humans. And now a new study has shown that loneliness is just as problematic for elephants, who show more signs of stress when alone than in a group.

Researchers from the University of Turku studied the behaviour of Asian elephants in Myanmar, and compared the levels of stress hormones in their faeces, to assess whether sociality is linked to stress in the animals.

Their analysis revealed that loneliness increased male elephants' levels of stress, while females were less stressed when they had babies. Previous research has shown that people with strong friendship groups experience a range of benefits, including improved health, lower disease risk and increase lifespan.

Until now, little research has looked into how loneliness affects Asian elephants – a typically social species.

In the study, the team studied 95 Asian elephants in Myanmar who were working in the timber industry. Overall, the findings highlight the importance of sociality in species beyond humans.

The team hopes the findings could be used to develop methods to improve the welfare of captive social animals in the future.