Diurnal and nocturnal activity budgets of zoo elephants in an outdoor facility

Abstract

The present study examined the activity budgets of 15 African elephants (1 bull, 6 cows, 2 male juveniles, 2 female juveniles, and 4 male calves) living at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park during the summers of 2010 and 2011. Onsite behavioral data (n = 600 hr) were collected for approximately 12 weeks from 0400 to 0830 and 1100 to 2400 during the 2010 and 2011 summer season. Foraging was the most common behavior state during the day followed by resting, and walking. During the evening hours, the elephants spent majority of their time foraging, resting, and sleeping. The average rate of self-maintenance behavior events (dust, wallow, etc.) increased from 0600 to 0700, 1100 to 1500, and from 1700 to 1900. Positive social behavior events (touch other, play, etc.) remained high from 0500 to 2300, with peaks at 0600, 1300, 1500, and 1900. Negative social events occurred at low rates throughout the day and night, with peaks at 0600, 1900, and 2200. The majority of positive behavior events during the daylight and nighttime hours involved the mother-calf pairs. Furthermore, the calves and juveniles initiated approximately 60% of all social events during the daytime and 57% of all social interactions at night. The results of this study demonstrate the differences between diurnal and nocturnal activity budgets of a multi-age and sex elephant herd in a zoological facility, which highlights the importance of managing elephants to meet their 24 hr behavioral needs.

When elephants fall asleep: A literature review on elephant rest with case studies on elephant falling bouts, and practical solutions for zoo elephants

“…Only a few studies investigating activity budgets of zoo elephants included complete 24 hr observation, namely Posta et al (), Horback et al (), Holdgate et al (), and the present study (Table ). The duration of lying rest and standing rest in zoo elephants varied considerably across different studies (see Table ).…”

“…From this literature, we extracted data available on the basis of individual animals for age, the time spent in lying and in standing rest, and the laterality of lying rest, and compiled them per elephant species in a spreadsheet, which is available as online supplementary S2. Several current publications on nocturnal elephant behavior lack data on individual elephants, sleeping activity and could not be considered in our analysis (Holdgate et al, ; Horback, Miller, Andrews, & Kuczaj, ; Stokes, Perera, Jayasena, & Silva‐Fletcher, ). We performed correlation analysis by nonparametric Spearmans’ test, and General Linear Models (GLM; confirming the normal distribution of residuals by Kolmogorov‐Smirnov‐test) for Asian elephants to include both the effect of origin (zoo, circus, or orphanage) and age in the analyses.…”

Diurnal and Nocturnal Activity Time Budgets of Asian Elephants (Elephas maximus) in a Zoological Park

“…A recent study by Horback, Miller, Andrews, & Kuczaj (2014) observed a mixed age and sex herd of 15 African elephants, and reported a difference between diurnal and nocturnal activity time budgets. Collectively these elephants engaged first in foraging, followed by resting during both day and night.…”

Nocturnal behavior of orphaned Asian elephant (Elephas maximus) calves in Sri Lanka

“…Despite the relaxation of selective pressures in zoos, studies suggest that when possible, captive elephants exhibit similar behavior to wild elephants, such as foraging throughout the night and synchronous sleep patterns (Brockett, Stoinski, Black, Markowitz, & Maple, 1999;Horback et al, 2014;Wilson, Bashaw, Fountain, Kieschnick, & Maple, 2006). However, there are some differences both between captive and wild elephants, and between captive Asian and African elephants.…”

“…Studying rehabilitated calves’ behavior is of high welfare importance, to ensure that they develop “natural” behavior and have a higher chance of post‐release survival. Studying nocturnal behavior specifically is important because elephants, like many animals, exhibit clear circadian variation in behavior (Horback, Miller, Andrews, & Kuczaj, ; Posta, Huber, & Moore, ); thus, study of both nocturnal and daytime behavior is important in developing a 24‐hr activity budget.…”