An exuberant display of behavior involving a constellation of vocal, chemical, tactile and visual communication that may occur, for example, during a greeting, birth, mating, kidnapping, rescue, arrival of a musth male, a coalition, or when a group of elephants have successfully routed an adversary. The term Bonding-Ceremony is a general term that includes more specific behavioral constellations such as Coalition, End-Zone-Dance, High-Fiving, Female-Chorus, Greeting-Ceremony, Mating Pandemonium. The behaviors appear to function to reinforce bonds and pull family and bond group members together for collective action.
'A calf who was lying down got squished', Joyce says. This part of the behavior was out of view, but you can hear her Roar and when the camera pans over to the NDs family we can see females rushing to the aid of a calf who stands in the middle of a group with an Open-Mouth. There is Rumbling and a Trumpet. Then more Rumbling as the females and other calves touch the calf Trunk-to-Mouth and Trunk-to-Genitals she gives two Baroo Rumbles. Interestingly, when inspecting the spectograms the calls by the adults are bimodal. (Amboseli, Kenya)
