Using behavioral observations and keeper questionnaires to assess social relationships among captive female African elephants

Freeman, Elizabeth W.; Schulte, Bruce A.; Brown, Janine L.

doi:10.1002/zoo.20249

Cited by 20 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 29 publications

(27 reference statements)

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“…Elephant keepers describe low levels of aggression as ‘completely normal’, however escalating aggression can be a cause for concern [25], and typically results in intervention by the zoo to prevent ongoing occurrences (Cairns A., personal communication, 2016). Types of social behaviour recorded in this study, such as touching with the trunk, conspecific play, approaching conspecifics and displacement, were similar in nature to reports in other studies of zoo elephants [10,11,52,53,54,55,56,57]. Positive non-physical interactions were higher in Asian herds than African herds, however Asian elephants were held, on average, in, larger (mean herd size 5.5 Asian, 3.3 African) and more related herds and so it is not possible to decipher from the data whether this finding is due to relatedness or to species.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 86%

Social Interactions in Zoo-Housed Elephants: Factors Affecting Social Relationships

Williams

Carter

Hall

et al. 2019

Animals

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Simple SummaryIn the wild, elephants live in large, complex social groups. Herds consist of a mixed structure of related females and their calves. One area of concern regarding the maintenance of zoo elephants has been the inability to provide them with social groupings that reflect wild group structure, and whether this impacts on their welfare. Here, we investigated whether a number of factors at the individual (e.g., personality, age or relatedness to others) and zoo (e.g., herd size, presence of calves in the group) level affected the frequency of social interactions in zoo elephant herds. Interactions were defined as positive or negative and then subdivided into physical and non-physical interactions. Social interactions were found to be related to age, personality, presence of calves in the herd, relatedness to other elephants in the herd and species (African or Asian). Calves engaged in the greatest amount of positive interactions but no extreme aggression was observed between any individuals, which was considered indicative of good social management. Increasing understanding about social structures that are affecting elephant relationships enables targeted management plans to be created, in order to provide elephants with the most appropriate social environments. These findings support the recommendations that elephants should be housed in related herds with multiple ages wherever possible, but they also highlight that unrelated elephants can still form compatible and successful social groups.AbstractElephants have complex social systems that are predominantly driven by ecological factors in situ. Within zoos, elephants are held in relatively static social groups and the factors observed driving social relationships in the wild are largely absent. Little research has investigated the effect of social group factors in zoos on elephant social interactions. The aim of this research was to establish whether there is a relationship between social group factors and social behaviour, in order to identify factors that make elephant herds more or less likely to be compatible. Results will facilitate recommendations for optimum social groupings for zoo elephants. Behavioural data quantifying social interactions were collected between January 2016 and February 2017 at seven UK and Irish zoos and safari parks from 10 African and 22 Asian elephants. Social interactions were split into four categories: positive physical, positive non-physical, negative physical and negative non-physical. Social interactions were related to age (positive physical higher and negative non-physical lower in calves than adults), personality (elephants with higher sociability scores engaged in more positive interactions and less negative interactions), presence of calves in the herd (herds with calves had more positive non-physical), relatedness to other elephants in the herd (positive non-physical were higher when relatives were in the group and negative non-physical were higher between unrelated elephants) and species (Asian elephants engag...

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 86%

Social Interactions in Zoo-Housed Elephants: Factors Affecting Social Relationships

Williams

Carter

Hall

et al. 2019

Animals

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“…The only previous studies on captive elephant personality have focused on behavioral characteristics (e.g. “disciplinary” behavior to herd mates) associated with estrous cycle irregularities [Freeman et al, , ]. Potentially, personality differences are modulated not only by short‐term physiological changes but also by life‐history characteristics of individual animals.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Personality Assessment and Its Association With Genetic Factors in CaptiveAsian andAfrican Elephants

et al. 2012

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Elephants live in a complex society based on matrilineal groups. Management of captive elephants is difficult, partly because each elephant has a unique personality. For a better understanding of elephant well being in captivity, it would be helpful to systematically evaluate elephants' personalities and their underlying biological basis. We sent elephant' personality questionnaires to keepers of 75 elephants. We also used 196 elephant DNA samples to search for genetic polymorphisms in genes expressed in the brain that have been suggested to be related to personality traits. Three genes, androgen receptor (AR), fragile X related mental retardation protein interacting protein (NUFIP2), and acheate-scute homologs 1 (ASH1) contained polymorphic regions. We examined the association of personality with intraspecific genetic variation in 17 Asian and 28 African elephants. The results suggest that the ASH1 genotype was associated with neuroticism in Asian elephants. Subjects with short alleles had lower scores of neuroticism than those with long alleles. This is the first report of an association between a genetic polymorphism and personality in elephants.

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“…Regarding personality research, numerous studies have demonstrated strong agreements between observer ratings and coding of behavior (Eckardt et al, 2014;Freeman, Schulte, & Brown, 2010;Horback, Miller, & Kuczaj, 2013). However, it could be noted that there may be certain limitations to the observer rating method.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Multifaceted Approach to Personality Assessment in Cheetahs (Acinonyx jubatus)

Razal¹,

Pisacane²,

Miller³

2016

AB&C

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-The purpose of this study was to assess the personality of 17 South African cheetahs at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park. A multifaceted approach of observer ratings (rating method), behavioral data (coding method) and hormone monitoring was used to examine individual differences. Knowledge of these individual differences, i.e., personality, is essential to better husbandry and management in a zoological facility. Principal Components Analysis yielded five personality components: Insecure, Aggressive, Interactive, Active, and Unsociable. Comparing the personality components with gender, reproductive success, and hand-rearing history of the individuals revealed significant associations. The components Aggressive and Interactive had a positive correlation with behavioral diversity, and the component Unsociable had a positive correlation with self-maintenance. There was a significant gender difference, with males scoring higher on Aggressive and Interactive. Individuals who scored higher on these components also had higher levels of behavioral diversity, and males displayed higher levels of behavioral diversity than females. In addition, individuals that were reproductively successful scored higher on the component Unsociable, as well as displayed higher FGM levels. This study demonstrates the value of using a multifaceted approach to further understand and assess animal personality. Information gained from this study can ultimately help zoological facilities manage and assist with reproductive efforts in populations that are not currently self-sustaining, such as the cheetah.

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Using behavioral observations and keeper questionnaires to assess social relationships among captive female African elephants

Cited by 20 publications

References 29 publications

Social Interactions in Zoo-Housed Elephants: Factors Affecting Social Relationships

Social Interactions in Zoo-Housed Elephants: Factors Affecting Social Relationships

Personality Assessment and Its Association With Genetic Factors in CaptiveAsian andAfrican Elephants

Multifaceted Approach to Personality Assessment in Cheetahs (Acinonyx jubatus)

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