Social Life of Captive Asian Elephants (Elephas maximus) in Southern India: Implications for Elephant Welfare

Abstract

Asian elephants in the wild live in complex social societies; in captivity, however, management often occurs in solitary conditions, especially at the temples and private places of India. To investigate the effect of social isolation, this study assessed the social group sizes and the presence of stereotypies among 140 captive Asian elephants managed in 3 captive systems (private, temple, and forest department) in Tamil Nadu, India, between 2003 and 2005. The majority of the facilities in the private (82%) and temple (95%) systems held a single elephant without opportunity for social interaction. The forest department managed the elephants in significantly larger groups than the private and temple systems. Among the 3 systems, the proportion of elephants with stereotypies was the highest in temple (49%) followed by private system (26%) and the forest department facility (6%); this correlates with the social isolation trend observed in the 3 systems and suggests a possible link between social isolation and abnormal elephant behavior separate from other environmental factors. The results of this study indicate it would be of greater benefit to elephant well being to keep the patchily distributed solitary temple and private elephants who are socially compatible and free from contagious diseases in small social groups at "common elephant houses" for socialization.

Welfare Assessment and Activities of Captive Elephants in Thailand

“…The number of overweight and obese elephants is growing due to reduced exercise opportunities, and because in many camps the only way for tourists to interact with them is through feeding (e.g., bananas, sugar cane) [ 29 , 30 ]. While giving rides is one form of exercise, there are alternatives, such as allowing elephants to interact freely with their conspecifics, explore their environment, swim/bathe/mud wallow, and forage naturally, all of which can support good physical and psychological health [ 31 , 32 , 33 ].…”

Non-Invasive Assessment of Physiological Stress in Captive Asian Elephants

“…Captive populations continue to decline due to failure in reproduction, diseases, and poor husbandry practices [5,6]. Traditionally mahouts (elephant trainer, rider, and keeper) manage the captive elephants, however the skills and quality of mahouts have declined due to reduced monetary benefits which affect the welfare and management of captive elephants [7]. Further, increased use of non-traditional or unskilled and inexperienced mahouts leads to physiological and psychological stress, which in turn makes the animals violent, and these violent animals could cause human casualties [7,8].…”

Facilitating the social behaviour of bull elephants in zoos

“…However, the needs of bulls have not been defined as clearly. The majority of peer‐reviewed papers on welfare (Clubb & Mason, ; Harris et al ., ; Rees, ), zoo management (Hutchins, ) and social behaviour (Schulte, ; Vanitha et al ., ) of elephants in human care exclude discussion of the bulls, and fail to consider their specific needs.…”