Nocturnal behavior in a group of female African elephants

Abstract

The nocturnal behavior of a stable group of female, African elephants (Loxodonta africana africana) was studied to: (1) examine their behavior as a function of hour of night; (2) qualitatively compare the elephants' activity budgets to those reported in a previous study; and (3) document the presence of aggressive and stereotypic behaviors that might necessitate a change in their management. The elephants were systematically observed at least five times per week for 10 weeks between 17:00 and 08:00. Instantaneous focal samples of behavior, location, and proximity were taken every minute on a rotating basis, and all observed occurrences of social behavior were recorded. The hour of night affected elephant activity: significant relationships were found between hour of night and percent of time they spent feeding, lying, and standing. The overall activity budgets of the elephants were similar to the activity budgets reported in a previous study, although differences were evident in lying, stereotypic, and social behaviors. These differences might be a function of age. Affiliative behaviors accounted for 57% of the elephants' social behaviors, and agonistic behaviors among the elephants occurred infrequently and caused no injuries. Additionally, the elephants used all areas to which they had access. These findings provide compelling evidence that unrestricted social access during the night is the appropriate management strategy for these elephants. The results from the present study also highlight the importance of replicating existing studies and using multiple behavioral measures to make decisions regarding the welfare and

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

“…In one study of a single captive female African elephant, less time was spent feeding at night (about 13% of the night when outside and about 32% of the night inside) than during the day (about 38% outside and 43% inside). Three female African elephants at Zoo Atlanta were found to feed for about 47% of the time, between 17:00 and 08:00 hr (Wilson et al, 2006), which is similar to previous studies by Brockett, Stoinski, Black, Markowitz, and Maple (1999) on the same group of elephants (41.91% nocturnal feeding time in 1992 and 34.84% in 1994).…”

“…Locomotion was observed for 3.3-6.5%, while inactivity occurred between 0.6-7.6% of the scans. Wilson, Bloomsmith, and Maple (2004) and Wilson, Bashaw, Fountain, Kieschnick, and Maple (2006) used instantaneous focal sampling periods of one hour.…”

“…Time spent walking is difficult to compare to previous studies, as some studies include walking in the definition of eating when performed simultaneously (e.g., Rees, 2009), while others do not (e.g., Posta, 2011), and some have a certain distance or number of steps the animal must complete in the definition of locomotion (e.g., Wilson et al, 2006). Walking in the current study is defined as movement of all four feet in a forward or backward motion.…”

Behavior and adrenal activity in a group of zoo golden snub-nosed monkeys, Rhinopithecus roxellana, following social structure change

“…For the frequency occurrence of each behavior, it was also standardized to data value of per 30-min session. In considering the highly different behavioral changes for individuals with different social status, and by referring to the methods employed by Lindburg et al [24], Wilson et al [25] and Moreira et al [26] for small sample sizes, the behavioral changes of four main behavioral categories over observation days for each individual were first descriptively reported. The Mann-Whitney U test was used to compare the occurrence of different behaviors (both in frequency and proportion of time) before and after the removal individually instead of pooling the data across individuals or comparing them as a group.…”

“…The alpha was 0.05 and all tests were two-tailed. For the behavioral comparison of each individual, we used a Bonferroni corrected P-value of 0.01 to designate a significant result, and also reported findings with 0.01<P<0.05 as trends [25]. Last, the relationships and social interaction changes between individuals of the whole group were also descriptively reported using socio-grams before and after the removal [4].…”