First Advance Article published under Pachyderm's new rolling publication model

We are delighted to announce the publication of the first Advance Article under Pachyderm's new rolling publication model for Volume 67 (2026) and can be located on our home page, under 'Forthcoming'. This field note presents preliminary evidence that the social and cognitive demands of leadership may impose measurable physiological costs on elephant matriarchs. Using non-invasive faecal glucocorticoid metabolite (fGCM) analysis, the findings highlight the importance of considering matriarchal wellbeing in elephant conservation and management, given the central role of matriarchs in maintaining group cohesion and transmitting ecological knowledge.

The publication of this paper marks an important milestone for Pachyderm. Under the journal's new rolling publication model, accepted articles will now be published online individually as soon as they have completed peer review, copy-editing and production, enabling research to reach readers more rapidly while continuing to form part of the annual volume which will be published in late November.