Jennie A. H. Crawley

A quarter of Asian elephants are captive, with greater than 90% of these tamed and cared for by handlers (mahouts) in Asia. Although taming is a much-discussed welfare issue, no studies to our knowledge have empirically assessed its impact on calves, and dialogue surrounding taming often lacks perspectives of those involved. Here, we interviewed mahouts involved in taming and monitored five physiological measures (faecal glucocorticoid metabolites (FGMs), serum cortisol, glucose, creatine kinase (CK) and heterophil:lymphocyte (H:L)) over the first 10 days of taming and following six months in 41 calves undergoing taming and 16 control individuals. These measures assess the duration and intensity of stress during taming. Interviews suggested mahouts had major concerns for their safety when discussing changing taming practices, an important consideration for future management. Calf physiological measures were elevated by 50–70% (FGMs/cortisol/glucose), 135% (H:L) and greater than 500% (CK) over the first few days of taming, indicative of elevated stress, not seen to the same extent in control adults. Some measures stabilized sooner (glucose/cortisol/CK/FGM: 7–10 days) than others (H:L: one–two months), indicating mostly acute stress. Our findings inform the welfare of approximately 15 000 captive elephants around the world. Future studies should compare taming in different populations and consider calf and mahout welfare.

Working animals spend hours each day in close contact with humans and require training to understand commands and fulfil specific tasks. However, factors driving cooperation between humans and animals are still unclear, and novel situations may present challenges that have been little-studied to-date. We investigated factors driving cooperation between humans and animals in a working context through behavioural experiments with 52 working semi-captive Asian elephants. Human-managed Asian elephants constitute approximately a third of the remaining Asian elephants in the world, the majority of which live in their range countries working alongside traditional handlers. We investigated how the familiarity and experience of the handler as well as the elephant’s age and sex affected their responses when asked to perform a basic task and to cross a novel surface. The results highlighted that when novelty is involved in a working context, an elephant’s relationship length with their handler can affect their cooperation: elephants who had worked with their handler for over a year were more willing to cross the novel surface than those who had a shorter relationship with their handler. Older animals also tended to refuse to walk on the novel surface more but the sex did not affect their responses. Our study contributes much needed knowledge on human-working animal relationships which should be considered when adjusting training methods and working habits.

Declining wild populations combined with accumulating captive populations of e.g. livestock, pets, draught and zoo animals have resulted in some threatened species with substantial proportions of their populations in captivity. The interactions animals have with humans in captivity depend on handler familiarity and relationship quality and can affect animal health, growth and reproduction with consequences for the success of conservation programmes. However, assessments of how specific human–animal relationships affect a range of physiological and behavioural outcomes are rare. Here, we studied semi-captive Asian elephants with detailed records of elephant–handler (mahout) relationships and veterinary management, allowing assessment of multiple welfare indicators in relation to specific mahout–elephant relationship lengths and mahout experience. These included measures of physiological stress (faecal glucocorticoid metabolite [FGM], heterophil:lymphocyte ratio [H:L]), muscle damage (creatine kinase [CK]), immunological health (total white blood cell count [TWBC]) and behaviour (response to mahout verbal commands). We found no evidence that FGM or H:L related to aspects of the mahout–elephant relationship. Longer overall mahout experience (i.e. years of being a mahout) was linked to increased muscle damage and inflammation, but the lengths of specific mahout–elephant relationships were inversely associated with muscle damage in working-age elephants. Elephants responded more to familiar mahouts in behavioural tasks and faster to mahouts they had known for longer. In summary, our results found little evidence that the mahout–elephant relationship affects physiological stress in this population based on FGM and H:L, but mahout experience and relationships were linked to other physiological responses (CK, TWBC), and elephants require behavioural adjustment periods following mahout changes.

Understanding factors preventing populations of endangered species from being self-sustaining is vital for successful conservation, but we often lack sufficient data to understand dynamics. The global Asian elephant population has halved since the 1950s, however >25% currently live in captivity and effective management is essential to maintain viable populations. Here, we study the largest semi-captive Asian elephant population, those of the Myanma timber industry (~20% global captive population), whose population growth is heavily limited by juvenile mortality. We assess factors associated with increased mortality of calves aged 4.0–5.5 years, the taming age in Myanmar, a process affecting ~15,000 captive elephants to varying degrees worldwide. Using longitudinal survival data of 1,947 taming-aged calves spanning 43 years, we showed that calf mortality risk increased by >50% at the taming age of four, a peak not seen in previous studies on wild African elephants. Calves tamed at younger ages experienced higher mortality risk, as did calves with less experienced mothers. Taming-age survival greatly improved after 2000, tripling since the 1970’s. Management should focus on reducing risks faced by vulnerable individuals such as young and first-born calves to further improve survival. Changes associated with reduced mortality here are important targets for improving the sustainability of captive populations.

The current extinction crisis leaves us increasingly reliant on captive populations to maintain vulnerable species. Approximately one third of Asian elephants (Elephas maximus) are living in semi-captive conditions in range countries. Their relationship with humans stretches back millennia, yet elephants have never been fully domesticated. We rely on the expertise of traditional handlers (mahouts) to manage these essentially wild animals, yet this profession may be threatened in the modern day. Here, we study the handling system of semi-captive timber elephants in Myanmar; the largest global semi-captive population (~5 000). We investigate how recent changes in Myanmar may have affected the keeping system and mahout-elephant interactions. Structured interviews investigated changes to mahout attitude and experience over the last two decades, as perceived by those who had worked in the industry for at least 10 years (n = 23) and as evaluated in current mahouts (n = 210), finding mahouts today are younger (median age 22yrs), less experienced (median experience 3yrs), and change elephants frequently, threatening traditional knowledge transfer. Mahout-elephant interactions manifested as 5 components (‘job appreciation’; ‘experience is necessary’; ‘human-elephant interaction’; ‘own knowledge’; ‘elephant relationship’), according to Principal Components Analysis. Experienced mahouts and mahouts of bulls and younger elephants were more likely to agree that ‘experience is necessary’ to be a mahout. Mahouts with difficult elephants scored lower on ‘human-elephant interaction’ and a mahout’s perception of their ‘own knowledge’ increased with more experience. Our finding of change in terms of mahout experience, age and commitment in the largest semi-captive elephant population suggests need for formal training and assessment of impacts on elephant welfare; these are findings applicable to thousands of elephants under similar management.

Background: The growth strategy of a species influences many key aspects of its life-history. Animals can either grow indeterminately (throughout life), or grow determinately, ceasing at maturity. In mammals, continued weight gain after maturity is clearly distinguishable from continued skeletal growth (indeterminate growth). Elephants represent an interesting candidate for studying growth because of their large size, long life and sexual dimorphism. Objective measures of their weight, height and age, however, are rare.Results: We investigate evidence for indeterminate growth in the Asian elephantElephas maximususing a longitudinal dataset from a semi-captive population. We fit growth curves to weight and height measurements, assess sex differences in growth, and test for indeterminate growth by comparing the asymptotes for height and weight curves. Our results show no evidence for indeterminate growth in the Asian elephant; neither sex increases in height throughout life, with the majority of height growth completed by the age of 15 years in females and 21 years in males. Females show a similar pattern with weight, whereas males continue to gain weight until over age 50. Neither sex shows any declines in weight with age.Conclusions: These results have implications for understanding mammalian life-history, which could include sex-specific differences in trade-offs between size and reproductive investment.