For zoo elephants, social lives may be more important than space

Source: Washington Post via Fort Worth Star-Telegram

JULY 16, 2016 3:41 PM

For zoo elephants, social lives may be more important than space

BY KARIN BRULLIARD
The Washington Post

There’s a churning national conservation about the welfare of animals in zoos, and one of the biggest debates is about elephants.

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More than two dozen researchers, who gathered and analyzed data on 255 elephants at 68 zoos, found no link between the size of an exhibit and three key indicators of poor elephant welfare: obesity, reproduction problems or “stereotypical behavior,” such as repetitive rocking or swaying. Elephants that walked more each day, as measured by GPS recordings, were no less likely to be obese than their sedentary counterparts, said the lead author of the study’s overview, Cheryl Meehan, who is a research associate at the University of California, Davis, School of Veterinary Medicine and executive director of the Animal Welfare, Research and Education Institute.

“This was really surprising,” said Meehan, who said that space-per-elephant among those studied ranged from 1,200 to 17,000 square feet. “This adds a twist to the current narrative, which is heavily biased toward this idea of more and more space is necessary and better.”

Instead, she said, the researchers found that the quality of the space was “extremely important.” Diverse enrichment activities and feeding methods – such as hanging or hiding food rather than plopping hay on the ground – were more closely linked to signs of positive welfare, particularly reproductive health. Hard floors were linked to musculo-skeletal and foot problems, as well as less lying down among African elephants, which the authors surmised could lead to sleep deprivation.

Big, stable and diverse social groups seem to be better for African and Asian zoo elephants of both genders. Elephants in those kinds of groups performed fewer repetitive behaviors like rocking, Meehan said, while those that spent more time in isolation performed more.

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