Nocturnal behavior in a group of unchained female African elephants

Abstract

The chaining of elephants at night is a common management strategy in zoos, yet the costs and benefits of such a strategy are relatively unknown. A study of three unchained female African elephants was undertaken to document their nocturnal behavior. The subjects were observed between the hours of 1800 and 0800 for 10 weeks in the summer of 1992 (total of 172 hr) and 14 weeks in the summer of 1994 (total of 153 hr). Scan data were collected every 5 min to gather information on activity budgets, social proximity, and space utilization. All-occurrence data were collected on social and non-social behaviors. In each year of the study, the subjects spent equivalent amounts of time eating, lying, standing, and walking. Additionally, subjects spent half of their time within one body length of another animal and utilized all three available enclosures. Social and nonsocial behaviors were frequent, and these data plus the activity profiles reveal the animals generally were most active between the hours of 1800 and 2400 and 0600 and 0700. The findings suggest that the use of no restraints is currently an effective strategy for this elephant group. The high activity levels observed during many of the early evening hours suggest that zoos could permit increased activity and social interactions by extending the hours when the elephants are unchained.

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).…”

“…The elephants in the current study are not chained. Brockett et al (1999) also found less variation in lying down time than in the current study. The African elephants in their study spent about 32% of the night (4.8 hrs) lying down in 1992 and about 33% of the night (4.6 hrs) lying down in 1994.…”

A preliminary study of the behavioral effects of feeding enrichment on African elephants

“…At the time of the study, the animals were estimated to be 17, 16, and 16 years of age. All observations were conducted during the day while the animals were in their outdoor exhibit [see Brockett et al, 1999 for a description of the housing conditions]. The normal husbandry routine for the subjects was as follows: the subjects were released into the outdoor exhibit at approximately 9:00 AM without their human handlers with approximately 23 kg of Bermuda hay to be consumed by all three individuals.…”

Emperor penguin mates: keeping together in the crowd

“…Group formation is a widespread phenomenon throughout the animal kingdom, occurring in a wide range of taxa (Parrish & Edelstein-Keshet 1999) both in wild and domestic animals ( Webster & Hurnik 1994;Brockett et al 1999;Ruckstuhl 1999). Evolutionary theories suggest that joining a group increases the organisms' fitness (Parrish & Edelstein-Keshet 1999) by reducing the chance of being caught by a predator, increasing the foraging efficiency and reducing energy costs ( Ruckstuhl & Neuhaus 2001;Krause & Ruxton 2002).…”