Behavior Associated with Feeding in Captive African and Asian Elephants

Racine, Richard N.

doi:10.22237/elephant/1521731845

Cited by 10 publications

(29 citation statements)

References 9 publications

(11 reference statements)

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“…The elephants maintained the item on their opened fingers and then pushed up the food to their mouth. The distance between the elephant and the food might also impact the manipulative strategy, nearer food items being more often grasped than distant items (Racine, 1980). In our study, no distance-dependent strategy appeared.…”

Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 53%

“…Besides, the way of delivery of the food items seemed not to be decisive in the selection of the feeding strategy. Racine (1980) also observed the manipulative strategies of captive Asian and African elephants with different kinds of food items (apples, oranges, watermelons). He correlated the different strategies with the trunk morphology (i.e.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 91%

“…Blow, Search behaviours, Trunk to mouth, Contact to mouth and Drink behaviours were removed from the analysis. Pinch, Grasp, Bundling and Block behaviours are reported in Racine (1980), in which Bundling is called Cradling and vary a little bit in the observed uses.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Authors studying different species tried to explain the inter-individual differences they noted in their experiments. Racine (1980) reported different strategies for the six elephants he observed. He proposed three explanations of variation in individual behaviours: morphology, learning and captivity.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Behavioural variability among captive African elephants in the use of the trunk while feeding

Lefeuvre

Gouat

Mulot

et al. 2020

PeerJ

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The Proboscideans, an order of mammals including elephants, are the largest of the Earth lands animals. One probable consequence of the rapid increase of their body size is the development of the trunk, a multitask highly sensitive organ used in a large repertoire of behaviours. The absence of bones in the trunk allows a substantial degree of freedom for movement in all directions, and this ability could underlie individual-level strategies. We hypothesised a stronger behavioural variability in simple tasks, and a correlation between the employed behaviours and the shape and size of the food. The observations of a captive group of African elephants allowed us to create a complete catalogue of trunk movements in feeding activities. We noted manipulative strategies and impact of food item properties on the performed behaviours. The results show that a given item is manipulated with a small panel of behaviours, and some behaviours are specific to a single shape of items. The study of the five main feeding behaviours emphasises a significant variability between the elephants. Each individual differed from every other individual in the proportion of at least one behaviour, and every behaviour was performed in different proportions by the elephants. Our findings suggest that during their lives elephants develop individual strategies adapted to the manipulated items, which increases their feeding efficiency.

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Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 53%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 91%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Behavioural variability among captive African elephants in the use of the trunk while feeding

Lefeuvre

Gouat

Mulot

et al. 2020

PeerJ

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“…Previous studies have examined lateralization of trunk use in elephant behaviour associated with feeding. Asian elephants, Elephas maximus, were examined both in captivity (Haakonsson and Semple, 2009) and in the wild (in Sri Lanka: Martin and Niemitz, 2003;in India: Keerthipriya et al, 2015), while a female African elephant, Loxodonta cyclotis, was observed in the zoo (Racine, 1980). In contrast to humans (Perelle & Ehrman 1994), great apes (Meguerditchian et al, 2013), bipedal marsupials (Giljov et al, 2015), parrots (Harris, 1989), anuran amphibians (Malashichev, 2006) and many other vertebrates (Ströckens et al,2013), elephants showed no population-level side biases in their manipulative behaviours neither with the use of the trunk nor with the use of the forelimbs (Haakonsson and Semple, 2009;Martin and Niemitz, 2003;Keerthipriya et al, 2015).…”

Section: Animal Behaviourmentioning

confidence: 99%

Context-dependent lateralization of trunk movements in wild Asian elephants

Giljov

Silva

Karenina

2017

BioComm

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Asymmetrical trunk use in elephants represents a distinctive example of motor lateralization. Previous studies have shown that trunk movements in the elephant behaviour associated with feeding is lateralized at the individual, but not the population level. The manifestation of lateralized behaviour depends on the nature of the behaviour and is usually more pronounced in social context. Therefore, we hypothesized that population-level lateralization of trunk use in elephants is manifested in social behaviour. One-sided biases in trunk movements were assessed in wild individually-identified Asian elephants during feeding (tearing off a tuft of grass) and social interactions (trunk-to-mouth contacts and trunk-to-genitals contacts between male initiator and female recipient). In feeding, lateralization at the individual and population levels was estimated based on 50 lateral trunk uses per individual. In social interactions, only the population-level bias was assessed using a single trunk contact from each individual. For trunk movements during feeding, elephants showed robust individual preferences, but no population-level lateralization. The distribution of right-and left-trunkers in the present study did not differ significantly from that obtained in previous studies of both the same elephant population and geographically distinct population. No population-level bias in trunk movements during trunk-to-mouth contacts was revealed. In trunk-to-genitals contacts, in contrast, a population-level lateralization was found. Right-sided trunk movements prevailed in males touching females. While individual preferences for feeding, combined with the absence of one-sided population bias, is obviously a species-typical characteristic of Asian elephants, social behaviour, such as male-female socio-sexual contacts, can elicit population-level lateralization of trunk use in this species. The right-sided bias in trunk-to-genitals contacts may reflect lateralization of olfactory perception. If this is the case, the revealed lateralization indicates a right-hemispheric advantage in the processing of social information which is consistent with the general tendency in mammals.

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Effect of the habitat and tusks on trunk grasping techniques in African savannah elephants

Costes,

Soppelsa,

Houssin

et al. 2024

Ecology and Evolution

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Among tetrapods, grasping is an essential function involved in many vital behaviours. The selective pressures that led to this function were widely investigated in species with prehensile hands and feet. Previous studies namely highlighted a strong effect of item properties but also of the species habitat on manual grasping behaviour. African savannah elephants (Loxodonta africana) are known to display various prehensile abilities and use their trunk in a large diversity of habitats. Composed of muscles and without a rigid structure, the trunk is a muscular hydrostat with great freedom of movement. This multitasking organ is particularly recruited for grasping food items while foraging. Yet, the diet of African savannah elephants varies widely between groups living in different habitats. Moreover, they have tusks alongside the trunk which can assist in grasping behaviours, and their tusk morphologies are known to vary considerably between groups. Therefore, in this study, we investigate the food grasping techniques used by the trunk of two elephant groups that live in different habitats: an arid study site in Etosha National Park in Namibia, and an area with consistent water presence in Kruger National Park in South Africa. We characterised the tusks profiles and compared the grasping techniques and their frequencies of use for different foods. Our results show differences in food‐grasping techniques between the two groups. These differences are related to the food item property and tusk profile discrepancies highlighted between the two groups. We suggest that habitat heterogeneity, particularly aridity gaps, may induce these differences. This may reveal an optimisation of grasping types depending on habitat, food size and accessibility, as well as tusk profiles.

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Behavior Associated with Feeding in Captive African and Asian Elephants

Cited by 10 publications

References 9 publications

Behavioural variability among captive African elephants in the use of the trunk while feeding

Behavioural variability among captive African elephants in the use of the trunk while feeding

Context-dependent lateralization of trunk movements in wild Asian elephants

Effect of the habitat and tusks on trunk grasping techniques in African savannah elephants

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