Studies on Elephants in captivity in European zoos

[Guest guest]

Two new reports have come out on elephants in captivity in Europe recently.

Think they are relevant for the Indian context as well. They can be found at the

following websites :

http://www.defra.gov.uk/news/2008/081212a.htm

 

http://randd.defra.gov.uk/Elephant Husbandry

Report<http://randd.defra.gov.uk/Elephant+Husbandry+Report>

 

http://sciencenow.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/2008/1211/2

 

*Hard time. *An African elephant and calf at a European zoo.

 

Credit: Image courtesy of Born Free Foundation/Chris Draper

Do Zoos Shorten Elephant Life Spans?By Virginia Morell

*Science*NOW Daily News

11 December 2008

Elephants are one of the top draws for zoos, which are the only places most

of us get a chance to see the behemoths. But a new and controversial study

in tomorrow's issue of

*Science*<http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/322/5908/1649>suggests

that captivity is so bad for female elephants' health and overall well-being

that their life spans are less than that of half of those of protected

populations in Africa and Asia. The data also indicate that captive-born Asian

elephant calves are particularly likely to die young. The team has called for an

end to zoos' acquisition of wild elephants and for limits on transfers of

animals among zoos.

Already concerned about their elephants, many zoos in the United States and

Europe are expanding or building new enclosures, or even deciding against

exhibiting the great beasts altogether. Studies in the wild have documented

the importance of roaming and family ties for these animals, which zoos with

limited space often cannot provide. A sign that the animals aren't thriving

is that " zoos are not able to maintain their elephant populations without

importing new, wild-caught animals, " says Ros Clubb, a wildlife biologist at

England's Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals in London.

Clubb and co-author Georgia Mason, a behavioral biologist at the University

of Guelph in Canada, published a pilot, non-peer-reviewed study on this

issue 6 years ago. It was fiercely and " rightly " criticized, they say, for

its small data set and poor statistics--problems they say they have

corrected with the new report.

 

For the new study, the researchers drew on data from European " elephant

studbooks " and the European Elephant Group, which track the animals' life

histories and transfers in captivity. Clubb and colleagues compared the

median life spans of 800 elephants in European zoos with those of wild

elephants in Kenya's Amboseli National Park and tamed elephants in Burma's

Myanma Tiber Enterprise (MTE), a logging business. " We chose populations

that are highly protected, as are zoo elephants, " says Clubb. The team's

analysis revealed that African zoo elephants had life spans of about 17

years, whereas those in Amboseli lived 56 years. The median life span for

Asian zoo elephants was nearly 19 years, but at MTE it was almost 42 years.

Death rates for infant Asian elephants were especially high in zoos.

 

Some of the zoo elephants' problems stem from the practices of removing

young calves from their mothers and transferring females from one zoo to

another, usually for breeding. Both practices break the animals' family ties

and presumably cause mental stress. " In the wild, females always stay with

their mothers; they never leave the herd where they're born, " says Mason.

Zoo elephants are often overweight as well, due to a lack of space in which

to roam.

 

Some zoo directors, including Miranda Stevenson, director of the British and

Irish Association of Zoos and Aquariums in London, applaud the study. The

study is an additional prod, she says, to continue the efforts to improve

the quality of life for zoo elephants. " It's a very sobering study, " agrees

Ron Kagan, director of Michigan's Detroit Zoological Society, who oversaw

the transfer of his zoo's two elephants to a California sanctuary 5 years

ago because of concerns about their well-being.

 

But others, including elephant conservationist Iain Douglas-Hamilton of the

environmental group Save the Elephants in Kenya, worry that the paper

presents an unrealistic image of elephants in the wild. " In most wild

populations, human predation is the predominant form of mortality, " he

notes. Further, zoos " play a significant role in conservation by stimulating

the interest of children and adults. " Stevenson adds that the changes under

way at zoos in the United Kingdom have already led to improvements, noting

that " all five calves born in the last 5 years " are healthy. " I'd like to

see a similar analysis 5 years from now, since we are all working to improve

conditions for our elephants. "