African elephants face increasing human-wildlife conflict as habitat loss forces them into agricultural areas. Crop raiding by elephants leads to retaliatory killing, while elephants experience stress, injury, and death in conflict situations.
Elephants injured or killed in conflict situations experience acute trauma. But the welfare cost extends to social groups: elephants are highly social and the death of matriarchs or other group members causes prolonged grief-like behaviours and social disruption. Elephants that learn to associate crop raiding with safety perpetuate behaviours that lead to escalating conflict, creating a welfare trap for individuals and families.