Abstract
There has been much concern in recent years about the welfare of elephants in zoos across North America and Europe. While some previous studies have assessed captive elephant welfare at a particular point in time, there has been little work to develop methods which could be used for regular, routine welfare assessment. Such assessment is important in order to track changes in welfare over time. A welfare assessment tool should be rapid, reliable, and simple to complete, without requiring specialist training and facilities; welfare assessments based on behavioural observations are well suited to this purpose. This report describes the development of a new elephant behavioural welfare assessment tool designed for routine use by elephant keepers. Tool development involved: (i) identification of behavioural indicators of welfare from the literature and from focus groups with relevant stakeholders; (ii) development of a prototype tool; (iii) testing of the tool at five UK zoological institutions, involving 29 elephants (representing 46% of the total UK captive elephant population of 63 animals); (iv) assessment of feasibility and reliability of aspects of the prototype tool; (v) assessment of the validity of each element of the tool to reflect the relevant behaviour by comparing detailed behavioural observations with data from the prototype tool; (vi) assessment of known-groups criterion validity by comparing prototype tool scores in individuals with demographics associated with better or worse welfare; (vii) development of a finalised tool which incorporated all elements of the tool which met the criteria set for validity and reliability. Elements of the tool requiring further consideration are discussed, as are considerations for appropriate application and interpretation of scores. This novel behavioural welfare assessment tool can be used by elephant-holding facilities for routine behavioural welfare monitoring, which can inform adjustments to individual welfare plans for each elephant in their collection, to help facilities further assess and improve captive elephant welfare. This study provides an example of how an evidence-based behavioural welfare assessment tool for use by animal caretakers can be developed within the constraints of zoo-based research, which could be applied to a range of captive species.
Highlights
Modern welfare assessment has placed much focus on providing animal carers or inspectors with the tools to be able to routinely assess welfare in situ
The Qualitative behavioural assessment (QBA) terms were not validated against detailed behavioural recordings, but they were analysed for known-group validity
We were not able to validate this, we have demonstrated that some QBA terms can be rated reliably by keepers and some terms are associated with physical welfare state
Summary
Modern welfare assessment has placed much focus on providing animal carers or inspectors with the tools to be able to routinely assess welfare in situ (e.g. on farm, in the laboratory, in the field, in a rescue shelter and in zoos [1,2,3,4]). Zoo elephant welfare across North America and Europe has been criticised [5,6,7,8,9] and in the UK, specific concerns were raised by a report on the welfare of elephants in UK zoos [10]. A review of this report by the government advisory committee, the Zoos Forum [11], suggested that evidence of welfare improvements were needed in order for zoos to continue keeping elephants in captivity. Objective and regular assessment of elephant welfare is needed to be able to monitor and provide evidence of any improvements, as was mandated by the Zoos Forum and the House of Lords [11, 12]
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