The Effects of Social Stress on Cortisol Levels

Social stress is one of the ways that we see cortisol released. Examples are when they're in contact with non-kin individuals, like non-related individuals in their group. If an unfamiliar individual is added to the herd, to the group, that's always stressful. And also, when you just see a breakdown of social networks in a herd, that also increases cortisol levels in elephants. There's also very interesting evidence that exists of post-traumatic stress disorder in response to traumatic events in elephants.