Developing welfare parameters for African elephants (Loxodonta africana) in fenced reserves in South Africa

Abstract

South Africa has many fenced reserves harbouring small to medium sized populations of African elephant (Loxodonta africana), most of which have been translocated. Elephants on fenced reserves may be exposed to various management interventions and practices (translocation, hunting, darting, high tourism impact, contraception programs, disruption due to infrastructure maintenance, etc.). These factors may impact the welfare of elephants. Poor elephant welfare may have serious consequences such as increased inter- and intra-species aggression that could result in fatalities. This is the first study to attempt to define behavioural and physiological welfare parameters for free-ranging elephants on small to medium sized reserves. The eight study sites incorporated reserves with different social structure combinations, elephant life-histories, reserve sizes, habitat, management, and tourism intensity. Data collection consisted of behavioural observations (10-minute videos) as well as faecal samples. By incorporating both behavioural and physiological (faecal glucocorticoid metabolite (fGCM) concentration) parameters, we aimed to investigate whether the two parameters showed similar trends. Five behavioural categories were identified (Arousal, Assessing, Ambivalent, Ambivalent/ Body care, and Frustrated behaviour), with various detailed behaviours demonstrated by the elephants that may indicate the influence of anthropogenic disturbance and possibly impact on animal welfare. The study showed significant differences between the selected detailed behaviours, behavioural categories and fGCM concentrations of elephants across the eight reserves. History seemed to be a decisive factor, as reserves with predominantly ex-captive elephants showed higher frequencies of certain behaviours as well as higher fGCM concentrations. Age, sex, reserve size and season were also found to contribute to our defined welfare indices and fGCM concentrations. This indicates that behavioural parameters, indicative of certain behavioural states, are valuable indicators of welfare, as supported by the physiological response of the elephants. The results also highlight the importance of taking multiple specified behaviours from a category into consideration when evaluating the welfare of elephants, to account for individual variation.

Fig 1

Strip plots that illustrate the influence of reserve on the frequency of the (A) Front foot swing, (B) Biting own trunk, (C) Trunk twist and twirl, (D) Trunk in own mouth, (E) Head held high and (F) Smelling down behaviours. The lines represent the distribution of frequencies observed for each focal sample and are plotted along the y-axis (for a given interval, the thicker or more tightly packed the strips, the more data there is).

Fig 2

Influence of reserve on the faecal glucocorticoid metabolite (fGCM) concentration (μg/g DW) collected for (A) Female, and (B) Male elephants from eight reserves between March 2019 and January 2021. Different letters indicate significant differences between elephants of respective reserves (based on mean ranks, a = reserve with the lowest mean rank). The graph represents the minimum, 1st quartile, median, and 3rd quartile, together with both the limits (the ends of the "whiskers") beyond which values are considered anomalous. The limits were calculated as follows: Lower limit = Q1–1.5 (Q3—Q1); Upper limit = Q3 + 1.5 (Q3—Q1).