Abstract
Wild-capture of numerous species is common for diverse purposes, including medical experiments, conservation, veterinary interventions and research, but little objective data exists on its consequences. We use exceptional demographic records on Asian elephants from timber camps in Myanmar to investigate the long-term consequences of wild-capture during 1951–2000 on their mortality (N = 5150). We show that captured elephants have increased mortality compared to captive-born elephants, regardless of their capture method. These detrimental effects of capture are similar for both sexes but differ substantially according to age. Elephants captured and tamed at older ages show a higher increase in mortality after capture than elephants captured and tamed young. Moreover, the increased mortality risk following capture and taming is still perceived several years after capture. Our results are timely given the continued capture of elephants and other wild animals to supplement captive populations despite the alarming declines of wild populations globally.
Highlights
The capture of wild animals may have long-term consequences on life-history for three main reasons
In Asian captive populations wild-born elephants suffer from increased mortality compared to captive-born individuals 31,34,38 but no studies currently compare the age-specific survival of males and females after capture, the effects of different capture methods, or investigate how long the adverse effects of capture persist for individuals of different ages, sex and capture method
The largest such captive population exists in Myanmar, with ~5000 captive elephants mainly employed in the timber logging industry[41]
Summary
The capture of wild animals may have long-term consequences on life-history for three main reasons. We lack detailed comparisons of mortality patterns between wild-captured and captive-born individuals that otherwise live in a similar environment with shared food and disease source, similar social interactions and breeding patterns Such data rarely exist for any species, preventing the comparison of the long-term survival of wild-caught and captive-born animals, despite the urgent need of animal welfare specialists, veterinarians and ecologists to identify such effects for the success of the individuals and populations. Their social environment includes genetically related and unrelated animals of both sexes and all ages that they can choose to interact with during nights and free-time unsupervised in the forest, including allomothers and grandmothers known to increase calf survival in the population[45] Both wild-caught and captive-born elephants undergo taming based on similar principles and methods before entering workforce[31,46]. The longterm differences between captive-born and wild-captured elephants shown by our study are currently rarely considered in research and conservation programs
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