No abstract

The foot health of elephants in human care is a longstanding concern. In 2001, the AZA Standards for Elephant Management and Care were published recommending husbandry to improve foot health. This article reports the results of a 2006 survey: basic statistics describing facility, husbandry, and foot health attributes are reported and relationships among variables are investigated. Median area available to elephants exceeded Standard recommendations (755 ft(2) per elephant indoor and 10,000 ft(2) outdoor). Concrete makes up 69% of indoor area and natural substrates account for 85% of outdzoor area. Elephants in AZA facilities received an average of 45.5 min/day of exercise, and facilities with a structured exercise plan provided significantly more exercise than did facilities without a structured exercise plan (z=-2.522, P=0.012). Enrichment is important to psychological health and may also stimulate activity beneficial to foot health; 95% of institutions had a structured enrichment program. Preventative foot care was nearly universal, and 100% of facilities performed routine nail and pad trimming. However, foot pathology has not been eradicated; 33% of institutions reported at least one pathology in the previous year. This study found a strong inverse relationship between foot pathology and exercise (chi(2)(3)=24.34, P<0.001). Younger herds were less likely to have a member diagnosed with arthritis (chi(2)(1)=8.90, P=0.003). Lameness was unrelated to age or pathology, and only the presence of arthritis explained lameness (z=-7.81, P<0.001). African elephants seemed to experience lower rates of foot pathology and arthritis than Asian elephants; however, this was explained by differences in age.

No abstract

No abstract

The present experiment evaluates the effects of intermittent exposure to a social stimulus on ethanol and water drinking in rats. Four groups of rats were arranged in a 2x2 factorial design with 2 levels of Social procedure (Intermittent Social vs Continuous Social) and 2 levels of sipper Liquid (Ethanol vs Water). Intermittent Social groups received 35 trials per session. Each trial consisted of the insertion of the sipper tube for 10 s followed by lifting of the guillotine door for 15 s. The guillotine door separated the experimental rat from the conspecific rat in the wire mesh cage during the 60 s inter-trial interval. The Continuous Social groups received similar procedures except that the guillotine door was raised during the entire duration of the session. For the Ethanol groups, the concentrations of ethanol in the sipper [3, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, and 16% (vol/vol)] increased across sessions, while the Water groups received 0% ethanol (water) in the sipper throughout the experiment. Both Social procedures induced more intake of ethanol than water. The Intermittent Social procedure induced more ethanol intake at the two highest ethanol concentration blocks (10-12% and 14-16%) than the Continuous Social procedure, but this effect was not observed with water. Effects of social stimulation on ethanol drinking are discussed.

Ensuring good health and welfare is an increasingly important consideration for conservation of endangered species, whether free-ranging or managed to varying degrees under human care. The welfare-based design of a new habitat for Asian elephants at the Oregon Zoo focused on meeting the elephants’ physical, physiological, psychological, and social needs 24 h a day and across life stages. The habitat was designed to encourage activity, promote species-typical behaviors, support changing social dynamics, offer increased opportunities for choice, and provide biologically meaningful challenges. In this 4-year study, we monitored elephant health and welfare indicators throughout the transition and acclimation from the previous habitat to the new habitat. Several welfare indicators obtained through longitudinal hormone analyses, behavior assessments, and GPS measurement of walking distance and space use provided evidence that these goals were achieved. The elephants were more active and walked farther on a daily basis in the new habitat, with an average walking distance of over 15 km per day. A switch from primarily caretaker-delivered food to seeking food on their own indicates that the disbursement of food with less temporal and spatial predictability increased foraging opportunities, which better satisfies appetitive motivations important for psychological well-being. All individuals showed adaptive and normal adrenal responses to change and challenge, with the highest fecal glucocorticoid metabolite (FGM) concentrations and variability during the construction phase, and a return to previous baseline concentrations in the new habitat, suggesting they acclimated well to the new environment. The elephants expressed a diverse range of species-typical behaviors and demonstrated social dynamics of a healthy herd in both habitats with transitions of individuals through life stages. They exhibited more autonomy in choosing whom to associate with socially and also by choosing different aspects of their environment with regular indoor/outdoor access and extensive resource use in the new habitat. Findings indicate that the complexity and flexibility of the new habitat and habitat management has been effective in improving overall welfare by providing meaningful challenges and the opportunity to express appetitive behaviors, by offering choice in environmental conditions, and by providing the space and resource distribution to support evolving herd dynamics and increased social equity for individuals.

Habitat loss and fragmentation, together with related edge effects, are the primary cause of global biodiversity decline. Despite a large amount of research quantifying and demonstrating the degree of these effects, particularly in top predators and their prey, most fragmented patches are lost before their conservation value is recognized. This study evaluates terrestrial vertebrates in Playa Sandalo, in the Osa Peninsula of Costa Rica, which represents the last patch of “primary” forest in the most developed part of this region. Our study indicates that the diversity of ground species detected within Playa Sandalo rival other areas under active conservation like Lapa Rios Ecolodge. Historical fragmentation, together with the maintenance of forest cover in isolated conditions, are potentially responsible for the species composition observed within Playa Sandalo; facilitating the development of a prey-predator system including ocelots, medium-size mammals, and birds at the top of the trophic chain. The high diversity of both habitat and vertebrates, its prime location and cultural value, as well as its unique marine importance represent the ideal conditions for conservation. Conservation of Playa Sandalo, and other small tropical forest remnants, might represent the only management option for wildlife conservation within ever growing human-dominated landscapes.