Simulated poaching affects global connectivity and efficiency in social networks of African savanna elephants—An exemplar of how human disturbance impacts group-living species

Selective harvest, such as poaching, impacts group-living animals directly through mortality of individuals with desirable traits, and indirectly by altering the structure of their social networks. Understanding the relationship between disturbance-induced, structural network changes and group performance in wild animals remains an outstanding problem. To address this problem, we evaluated the immediate effect of disturbance on group sociality in African savanna elephants — an example, group-living species threatened by poaching. Drawing on static association data from ten free-ranging groups, we constructed one empirically based, population-wide network and 100 virtual networks; performed a series of experiments ‘poaching’ the oldest, socially central or random individuals; and quantified the immediate change in the theoretical indices of network connectivity and efficiency of social diffusion. Although the social networks never broke down, targeted elimination of the socially central ..., , , , # Data from: Simulated poaching affects global connectivity and efficiency in social networks of African savanna elephants—An exemplar of how human disturbance impacts group-living species When using these data, please cite both the original article and the Dryad package as follows: Wisniewska M, Puga‑Gonzalez I, Lee PC, Moss C, Russell G, Garnier S, Sueur C. (2021). Simulated poaching affects global connectivity and efficiency in social networks of African savanna elephants. PLOS Computational Biology, 17(11): e1009792. [https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1009792](https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1009792). and Wisniewska M, Puga‑Gonzalez I, Lee PC, Moss C, Russell G, Garnier S, Sueur C. (2025). Data from: Simulated poaching affects global connectivity and efficiency in social networks of African savanna elephants. Dryad Digital Repository. [https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.XXXXXXX](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.XXXXXXX) (to be completed upon acceptance) ## Section 1: deletion_s...