Elephants have four distinct personalities that help their herd survive in the African bush, scientists have found.

  With their grey skin, mournful eyes and slow plodding gait, you could be forgiven for thinking elephants are uniformly melancholy creatures. But scientists have now discovered the largest living land animals have personalities to match their size.

  In a new study of African elephants, researchers have identified four distinct characters that are prevalent with a herd – the leaders, the gentle giants, the playful rogues and the reliable plodders.

  Each of the types has developed to help the giant mammals survive in their harsh environment and are almost unique in the animal kingdom, according to the scientists.

  Professor Phyllis Lee and her colleague Cynthia Moss studied a herd of elephants in the Amboseli National Park in Kenya known as the EB family – famous for their matriarch Echo before she died in 2009.

  Using data collected over 38 years of watching this group, the researchers analysed them for 26 types of behaviour and found four personality traits tended to come to the fore.

  The strongest personality to emerge was that of the leader. Unlike other animals, where leadership tends to be won by the most dominant and aggressive individual, the elephants instead respected intelligence and problem solving in their leader. Echo, the matriarch and oldest in the group, her daughter Enid, and Ella, the second oldest female, all emerged as leaders.

  The playful elephants tended to be younger but were more curious and active. Eudora, a 40-year-old female in the herd, seemed to be the most playful, consistently showing this trait through out her life while playfulness in some of the other elephants declined with age.

  Gentle elephants, which included two 27-year-old females Eleanor and Eliot, caressed and rubbed against others more than the others.

  Those that were reliable tended to be those that were most consistent at making good decisions, helped to care for infants in the herd and were calm when faced with threats. Echo and her youngest daughter Ebony seemed to be the most reliable.

  Professor Lee said that elephants with these traits tended to be the most socially integrated in the group while those who tended to be less reliable and pushy were more likely to split from the herd.

  科学家发现，大象有四种性格，帮助它们的群落在非洲丛林中生存下来。

  很多人误以为，有着灰色皮肤、悲伤眼神、迈着缓慢沉重步履的大象性格都是忧郁的。但是科学家现在发现，这种现存最大陆生动物身材不同，性格也不同。

  在一项对非洲象的新研究中，研究人员发现大象群落中最常见的四种截然不同的性格——领袖性格、温和性格、顽皮性格和可靠耐劳性格。

  科学家称，每种性格都能帮助这种巨型哺乳动物在严酷环境中生存，这在动物王国中几乎是独一无二的。

  菲利斯·李教授和她的同事辛西娅·莫斯研究了肯尼亚安波塞利国家公园里的一群号称“EB家庭”的大象，这个群落因其女家长艾柯而出名，艾柯于2009年离世。

  在观察这个群落并收集了38年的数据之后，研究人员分析了这些大象的26种行为方式，发现了最显著的四种性格类型。

  个性最强的就是领袖性格的大象。其他动物的领导权一般都是最具主导力和侵略性的个体赢得，但大象尊敬的是领导的智慧和解决问题的能力。群落中最年长的女家长艾柯、她的女儿艾妮德、年纪仅次于艾柯的艾拉都是象群的领袖。

  顽皮的大象一般年纪小些，但是更好奇、更好动。群落中一头40岁的雌象尤多拉似乎是最贪玩的，这种顽皮的性格陪伴了她一生，但其他一些大象的顽皮却随着年龄而消减。

  温和的大象——包括两头27岁的雌象艾琳娜和艾略特——更经常爱抚和触碰其他大象。

  那些可靠性格的大象通常总是做出正确决定，帮助照顾群落中的幼象，而且在面临威胁时能保持冷静。艾柯和她最年幼的女儿艾伯妮似乎是群落中最可靠的大象。

  李教授说，拥有这些性格的大象通常都是最能融入群体的，而那些没那么可靠、一意孤行的大象则最可能脱离象群。