Literature review
Recognized as some of the most intelligent creatures on earth, elephants continue to fascinate both scientists and general observers alike. Aristotle once described the species of elephants as, “the animal which surpasses all others in wit and mind”. Today, some enthusiasts believe that their intelligence may match or even rival that of human beings. Yet this praise for their intelligence does the elephants no good, for their cognitive abilities and awareness to their surroundings have gone ignored for years as these animals are still being kept in captivity all around the world.
The real role of zoos and other captive environments in the conservation of threatened animals is increasingly coming under public scrutiny. This is perhaps natural in the case of intelligent, charismatic animals such as elephants (Sukumar, R., 2003). Elephants should not be kept in captivity, for recent research has proved this species to be highly complex and intelligent beings. Elephants are said to have dug wells to find hidden water sources and plug up holes with chewed bark to prevent loss of water to other animals. Working Asian elephants have also been seen to stuff their bells with mud at night, so they can enter fields to raid crops undetected (Bates, L., Poole, J., & Byrne, R. 2008) If the popularity of zoos and other captive environments continues to increase, these creatures will further be negatively affected in a variety of ways. In addition to this, some elephant stocks must be maintained through capture from the wild and in many instances depleting the population of these highly intelligent animals to the point of local extinction. The number of wild elephants is estimated to have dropped from around 1.3 million in 1971 to between 300,000 and 500,000 in 2006, and these numbers are only continuing to drop (Cohn, J., 2006). In no way is it justifiable to deplete the natural environment of one of the most intellectually complex species.
Body Awareness of Elephants
Self-awareness is a seemingly rare capacity in the animal kingdom due to the complexity of the cognition that most likely underlies it. Specifically, self-awareness suggests an understanding or recognition of the self that is often linked to more complex forms of perspective thinking. In addition, the capacity for self-awareness suggests an individual can separate the ‘self-entity’ from the ‘other-entity’. The most recognized and often-used test of self-awareness is the mirror self-recognition (MSR) test. In this experiment, an animal’s behavior in front of a mirror is interpreted as self-recognition only if the animal progresses to show understanding that the mirror image is actually a reflection of its own body rather than that of a different animal. Among the few animals to pass this self-awareness test are elephants (Dale, R., & Plotnik, J., 2017).
In 2017, Rachel Dale and Joshsua M. Plotnik took this test a step forward and designed an experiment to test the body-awareness of elephants. This test specifically looks at how individuals may recognize their bodies as obstacles to success in a problem-solving task. Such a task could demonstrate an individual’s understanding of its body in relation to its physical environment, which may be easier to define than the self-other distinction demonstrated through success on the mirror test. In this experiment, an elephant was instructed to step onto a mat and pick up a stick to give the experimenter. The task in this experiment was complicated by the fact that the stick was attached to the mat by a string; so, in order to complete the transfer task, the elephant has to recognize itself as an obstacle in the situation and remove itself from the mat to give the stick to the experimenter (refer to Figure 1.).
The results of this experiment showed
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Social Interactions
Elephants are known to be a highly social species, living quite socially interactive lives similar to that of primates and even humans. In nature, elephants tend to form medium to large network societies with hierarchical organization, proving this species to be capable of social complexity. Elephant societies generally consist of 3–100 members of related females and their calves (Bates, L., Poole, J., & Byrne, R. 2008). The oldest females, the matriarchs, lead the heard to water and vegetation areas. The family members of the herd—the mother, aunts, and sisters—collaboratively raise the calves, acting as allomothers who comfort, assist, protect, and play with the offspring of their kin. Females born into the herd stay with their family for the entirety of their life, while males born into the herd leave by the age of 12-15 years to search for mates. Once they have left the herd, males either travel alone or form small groups, called bachelor pods, consisting of 2–4 individuals (Irie, N., & Hasegawa, T., 2009). Same-sex bonding is common in elephants. This is usually in the form of affectionate trunk-entwining, kissing and placing trunks into the other animal's mouth. (doesn’t make sense here but I want it in the paper somehow)
Both males and females range over large distances in their search for resources. This makes long-distance communication between family members and sexually receptive males and females very critical. Communication is achieved over several kilometers by powerful low-frequency vocalizations that can be detected aurally and seismically, via chemical signals released in the urine and other bodily secretions. At shorter ranges, vocal, chemical, visual and tactile cues are used. The exact communicative repertoire is unknown, but over 30 call types and 80 visual and tactile displays have been described for African elephants (Elephant Cognition, Current Biology). With these cues, the elephants discriminate and recognize each other very precisely. The matriarchs communicate with each other to decide their direction, and coordinate their movements using low- frequency calls (add more about communication)
Though wild elephants are known to cover huge distances, those housed in zoos are denied this opportunity. While fencing in such large animals, there are also repercussions for their physical and mental health. A new study in the journal PLOS ONE indicates that as a whole, the biological and emotional welfare of elephants in zoos is more affected by social factors than the size of their enclosure. Not only does this finding provide an insight into the social and cognitive complexity of these incredible creatures, it could also help zoo management officials tailor their practices to the needs of elephants. To conduct their research, the authors raked through a back catalog of studies relating to the welfare of African and Asian elephants in 68 different North American zoos. From these, it is apparent that elephants in captivity exhibit a wide range of alarming symptoms including poor reproductive health, foot and joint problems, obesity and stereotypic behavior. In the wild, both African and Asian elephants live in complex social structures, normally based around matrilineal descent groups. Removing elephants from their kinship groups can therefore be a highly traumatic experience for the animals, which is why social factors are so vital to their overall health. The quality of bonds within a captive social environment may be an important predictor of mental health and something that should not be taken for granted. For instance, researchers found a direct correlation between the amount of time zoo elephants spend alone and rates of stereotypic behavior CITATION. Conversely, their research also suggests that elephants who live in larger groups, have regular contact with juveniles, and spend little time alone tend to be less likely to exhibit this behavior. Furthermore, several of the studies included in this research indicate that the more times an elephant is transferred between zoos, the more likely it is to begin behaving abnormally as a result of the extreme social stress of repeated introduction to new groups.
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Health Effects of Captivity
The lack of physical activity and the overweight condition of animals are probably the cause of elephants’ health problems in zoos. In a study performed in 2008, Anand Ramanathan and Avanti Mallapur performed a health assessment on 81 captive elephants maintained at 10 study sites across India.
Benefits of Captivity
The role of zoos in the future conservation of Asian elephants is undoubtedly debatable. On the positive side, research in zoos has provided us with a detailed understanding of elephants.
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