Future of elephants living in captivity hangs in the balance

Date:  March 26, 2019

Source:  University of Sheffield

Scientists at the University of Sheffield and University of Turku are looking at ways to boost captive populations of Asian elephants without relying on taking them from the wild.

Almost a third of Asian elephants are in captivity in countries like India, Myanmar and Thailand, mainly being used in the timber industry to drag logs or for tourism.

Sustaining wild populations is the conservation priority but, with so many individuals in captivity, maintaining sustainable captive populations with high welfare standards is also important for the future of the species.

The sustainability of these elephant populations has always relied on the capture of their wild counterparts, but now they are a protected species their future is uncertain.

In a joint research study, the University of Sheffield and the University of Turku, in Finland, working alongside The Myanma Timber Enterprise (MTE), investigated how trends in elephant capture from the wild influenced birth, death and population growth in 3,500 working elephants over 54 years.

Using birth and death rates from years where wild-capture was reduced the scientists assessed the outlook for captive elephants and found that the population is vulnerable to decline.

The research, published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B, suggests that immediate population declines may be reduced if survival in juvenile elephants is improved.

This could involve improving welfare standards during the training period, as the elephants are separated from their mothers and trained for work around the age of four, which can be stressful for them, and identifying pregnant females earlier and improving their welfare so they can provide for and bond with their calf.

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Asian elephants could be the math kings of the jungle

Experimental evidence shows that Asian elephants possess numerical skills similar to those in humans

Date: October 22, 2018

Source: Springer

Asian elephants demonstrate numeric ability which is closer to that observed in humans rather than in other animals. This is according to lead author Naoko Irie of SOKENDAI (The Graduate University for Advanced Studies and the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science) in Japan. In a study published in the Springer-branded Journal of Ethology, Irie and her colleagues found that an Asian elephants' sense of numbers is not affected by distance, magnitude or ratios of presented numerosities, and therefore provides initial experimental evidence that non-human animals have cognitive characteristics similar to human counting.

Previous research has shown that many animals have some form of numerical competence, even though they do not use language. However, this numerical ability is mainly based on inaccurate quantity instead of absolute numbers. In this study, the researchers aimed to replicate the results of previous research that already showed that Asian elephants have exceptional numeric competence.

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Asian elephants have different personality traits just like humans

Date:  February 21, 2018

Source:  University of Turku

Summary:

Researchers have studied a timber elephant population in Myanmar and discovered that Asian elephant personality manifests through three different factors. The personality factors identified by the researchers are Attentiveness, Sociability and Aggressiveness.

Read on  

A big difference between Asian and African elephants is diet

Date: August 30, 2017

Source: University of Nottingham

Summary:

New research has shown that there are significant differences between the Asian and the African forest elephant -- and it isn't just about size and the shape of their ears. It is about what they eat and how they affect forest ecosystems.

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Freeze-dried dung gives clue to Asian elephant stress

By Siva Parameswaran

BBC Tamil Service

17 August 2017 

"Collecting fresh faecal samples is not as easy as it may sound," says researcher Sanjeeta Sharma Pokharel.

But her efforts have helped scientists in India devise a unique, non-invasive way to monitor the physiological health of wild elephants.

The key has been freeze-drying dung in the field to preserve the elephant's hormones.

As a result, scientists found stress levels in females were more conspicuous than in male elephants.

Over five years, Sanjeeta and her colleagues collected more than 300 samples from 261 elephants in the biodiversity-rich Western Ghats area.

She explained her technique: "I used to hide and observe till the elephant defecated and moved away."

She told the BBC: "These samples mean a lot to me."

Ethical approach

The aim of the research was to evaluate the influence of the elephants' body condition on glucocorticoid metabolites.

Animals such as elephants are subjected to various stressors in their lives, with factors including threats from predators, food shortages, drought and illness.

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Elephants' 'body awareness' adds to increasing evidence of their intelligence

April 12, 2017 

Asian elephants are able to recognise their bodies as obstacles to success in problem-solving, further strengthening evidence of their intelligence and self-awareness, according to a new study from the University of Cambridge. 

Self-awareness in both animals and young children is usually tested using the 'mirror self-recognition test' to see if they understand that the reflection in front of them is actually their own. Only a few species have so far shown themselves capable of self-recognition - great apes, dolphins, magpies and elephants. It is thought to be linked to more complex forms of perspective taking and empathy.

Critics, however, have argued that this test is limited in its ability to investigate complex thoughts and understanding, and that it may be less useful in testing animals who rely less on vision than other species.

One potential complement to the mirror test as a measure of self-understanding may be a test of 'body-awareness'. This test looks at how individuals may recognise 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 distinction between oneself and another demonstrated through success at the mirror test.

Read more at: 

Elephants in dramatic muddy escape

29 March 2017

From the section Science & Environment


It is a great escape. One by one, 11 Asian elephants manage to drag themselves clear of a muddy hole.

The drama took place in the Keo Seima Wildlife Sanctuary in Mondulkiri Province, Cambodia.

The elephants had gone to drink and bathe in water collected in an old bomb crater - but then got stuck.

Local villagers used vegetation and ropes to help the animals out. Once clear, the elephants ran off into the bush.

Everyone pulled together to avoid a tragedy, said Tan Setha, a Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) technical advisor to the protected area.

“This herd consisted of three adult females and eight juveniles of various ages, including a male that had almost reached maturity.

"These elephants represent an important part of the breeding population in Keo Seima Wildlife Sanctuary, and their loss would have been a major blow to conservation." Image copyright WCS Image caption The hole is an old bomb crater enlarged to store water

The muddy hole was originally made by a bomb during the Vietnam war, but was later widened by farmers to store water.

When the farmers realised the elephants were trapped in the depression last Friday, they notified the Department of Environment, who in turn notified WCS who were able to mobilise a rescue effort.

Continued

Rare footage shows herd of wild Asian elephants in Cambodian jungle

Hidden camera shows 12 wild Asian elephants walking through a Cambodian forest, something which hasn't been seen for a decade

By Telegraph Video, video source Conservation International

2:46PM GMT 15 Jan 2016

Rare video has emerged from the environmental group, Conservation International, showing a herd of 12 elephants in a Cambodian forest.

The footage shows 12 elephants walking through Cambodia’s Central Cardamom Protected Forest in late 2015.

Continued ...

GIS study reveals preferred habitat of the Asian elephant

Date:May 1, 2015

Source:Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM)

Summary:New results show that Asian elephants preferred secondary forests, presumably because of the abundance of ground grass to eat. The study also found that they spend 75% of their time within 1.5 km of their water source.

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Mammoth genomes provide recipe for creating Arctic elephants

Catalogue of genetic differences between woolly mammoths and elephants reveals how ice-age giants braved the cold.

Ewen Callaway

01 May 2015

Unlike their elephant cousins, woolly mammoths were creatures of the cold, with long hairy coats, thick layers of fat and small ears that kept heat loss to a minimum. For the first time, scientists have comprehensively catalogued the hundreds of genetic mutations that gave rise to these differences. 

The research reveals how woolly mammoths (Mammuthus primigenius) evolved from the ancestor they share with Asian elephants (Elephas maximus). It could even serve as a recipe for engineering elephants that are able to survive in Siberia.

“These are genes we would need to alter in an elephant genome to create an animal that was mostly an elephant, but actually able to survive somewhere cold,” says Beth Shapiro, an evolutionary geneticist at the University of California, Santa Cruz who was not involved in the latest research. As fanciful as it sounds, such an effort is at a very early stage in a research lab in Boston, Massachusetts.

The first woolly mammoth genome was published in 2008 (ref. 2), but it contained too many errors to reliably distinguish how the mammoth genome differs from those of elephants. Other studies singled out individual mammoth genes for close inspection, identifying mutations that would have endowed the animals with light coats3 and oxygen-carrying haemoglobin proteins that work in the cold4.

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Team studies immune response of Asian elephants infected with a human disease

Date:

July 15, 2014

Source:

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Summary:

Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the organism that causes tuberculosis in humans, also afflicts Asian -- and occasionally other -- elephants. Diagnosing and treating elephants with TB is a challenge, however, as little is known about how their immune systems respond to the infection. A new study begins to address this knowledge gap, and offers new tools for detecting and monitoring TB in captive elephants.

Read on

War Elephant Myths Debunked by DNA

Jan. 9, 2014 — Through DNA analysis, Illinois researchers have disproved years of rumors and hearsay surrounding the ancient Battle of Raphia, the only known battle between Asian and African elephants.

"What everyone thinks about war elephants is wrong," said Alfred Roca, a Professor of Animal Sciences and member of the Institute for Genomic Biology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, who led the research published in the Journal of Heredity.

After Alexander the Great's premature death, his vast kingdom was divided among his generals. "Being generals, they spent the next three several centuries fighting over the land in-between," Roca said.

Continued

Camera trap footage of Asian elephants in Cambodia

Elephants filmed in Cambodia's Seima Protection Forest

April 2013. A series of remote camera traps in Cambodia's Seima Protection Forest have provided an intimate glimpse of families of wild Asian elephants; the cameras were placed by The Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS). 

The footage shows elephant families wandering through the jungle, wallowing in mud holes, feeding, and playing. The footage was collected during biodiversity monitoring work by WCS and the Cambodian Government's Forestry Administration, and filmed by Daniel Morawska, WCS's Seima Management Advisor. 

Haven for cats and other species

Seima was once a draw for loggers. It is now a haven for 23 carnivore species, including seven cat species, two bears, and the Asian wild dog. The country's government transformed the former logging concession into a Yosemite-sized protected area in 2009. WCS worked closely with Cambodian governmental agencies to help create the protected area and continues to provide support to ensure the sustainable management of forests and biodiversity. 

Covering more than 1,100 square miles along Cambodia's eastern border with Vietnam, Seima is the country's first protected area designed to conserve forest carbon as one of its key goals. WCS is helping to measure carbon stocks contained in the forest to calculate the amount of greenhouse gas emissions it keeps out of the atmosphere. 

Joe Walston, WCS Executive Director for the Asia Program, said "These beautiful images in Seima Protection Forest are a visual testimony of what conservation success can look like." 

Significant population

WCS pioneered the use of genetic fingerprints obtained from dung to monitor elephant numbers in Seima, working with Professor Lori Eggert from the University of Missouri in the U.S. and the Cambodian authorities. This effort found that Seima contained a regionally significant population both in terms of numbers and genetic diversity, but the animals are still elusive and rarely seen. While working in the protected area in 2010, wildlife photographer Allan Michaud took the first high-quality footage ever filmed of a wild elephant in Cambodia. 

Continued: http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/cambodia-elephant-film.html

Asian elephants have intricate social networks

Social networking elephants never forget

December 2012. Asian elephants typically live in small, flexible, social groups centred around females and calves while adult males roam independently. However, new research shows that while Asian elephants in Sri Lanka may change their day to day associations they maintain a larger, stable, network of friends from which they pick their companions.

Social networking
Researchers followed the friendships among over a hundred female adult Asian elephants in the Uda Walawe National Park in Sri Lanka for five seasons and analysed how these relationships changed over time. While the elephants tended to congregate in groups containing three adult females, there could be as many as 17 in a single group. Social strategies were also variable, with some elephants always being seen in each other's company while others were 'social butterflies' who frequently changed companions. Surprisingly, 16% completely changed their 'top five' friends over the course of the study. Elephants who had few companions were very faithful to them, whereas those who had many tended to be less loyal.

Analysis of elephant 'ego-networks' showed that Asian elephants tended to also associate with larger sets of companions, especially in dry seasons. Social bonds were especially strong when resources were scarce, even to the extent of expelling unfamiliar elephants from sources of water. This may be due in part to the ecology of their environment, because other elephants, which live in drier areas, congregate in greater numbers in wet seasons. It was previously thought that, unlike African savannah elephants, Asian elephants had no extensive social affiliations, but at the population level, extensive clusters of interconnected groups were discovered.

Trunk calls
Dr Shermin de Silva from the University of Pennsylvania explained that, "Elephants are able to track one another over large distances by calling to each other and using their sense of smell. So the 'herd' of elephants one sees at any given time is often only a fragment of a much larger social group. Our work shows that they are able recognize their friends and renew these bonds even after being apart for a long time."

The research was published in published in BioMed Central's open access journal BMC Ecology

http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/sri-lanka-elephants.html

Sri Lankan elephant numbers 'healthy', survey suggests

Sri Lanka's first nationwide census of its wild elephant population suggests it is "in good health", officials say.

Sri Lankan officials said 7,379 elephants were found, with 5,879 seen near parks and sanctuaries and another 1,500 estimated to be elsewhere.

The Wildlife Conservation Department said before the count it thought just 5,350 members of the endangered species lived in the island country.

Some environmentalists in Sri Lanka have queried the survey's methodology.

In 'good health'
The three-day survey began on 11 August and classified the animals by age and sex.

Wildlife Conservation Department director HD Ratnayake said 3,500 people had set up 1,533 counting posts near watering holes, irrigation tanks and lakes commonly used by elephants.

"We have an elephant population which is in good health and its population growth is also very good," Mr Ratnayake told reporters in Colombo.

The survey counted 1,107 baby elephants, he added.

Use in festivals
Conservationist Prithviraj Fernando told the BBC elephants could visit a number of different watering holes in one night. Dr Fernando said the radio tracking of about 50 elephants in Sri Lanka had provided a wealth of information that could be used to plan for the animals' future.

A group of around 30 conservation organisations had boycotted the census after Sri Lanka's wildlife minister reportedly said it would be used to identify strong young elephant calves, to be "donated" to temples for use in festivals.

The mainly Buddhist population of Sri Lanka revere elephants as sacred, with captive elephants fulfilling ceremonial roles for priests and kings since ancient times.

Officials later denied the census would lead to elephants being taken captive, saying the data would instead be used to formulate policies to protect the animals. It would also be used to mitigate the conflict between farmers and free-ranging elephants, they said.

Officials say nearly 200 elephants are killed annually when they stray into agricultural areas, while marauding elephants are said to kill some 50 people each year.

It is the first survey of elephant numbers since Sri Lanka's military crushed a decades-long uprising by Tamil Tiger rebels in May 2009.

The civil war had prevented researchers counting elephants in the north and south of the country during a similar survey in 1993 that found 1,967 elephants. In 1900 the elephant population was estimated to stand at 10,000 to 15,000.

Sri Lanka survey results:

• 7,379 elephants in total
• 1,107 baby elephants
• 122 tuskers

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-14767882

The Sri Lankan elephants that got away

The Sri Lankan elephants that got away05/04/2011 20:35:32

April 2011: Wild elephants have been confirmed in the Sinharaja Forest in south-west of Sri Lanka, much to the delight of conservationists. Here environmentalist Srilal Miththapala explains the significance of the discovery and why it is such big news:

Wild elephants were found in most parts of Sri Lanka during early 1900s. However, with the rapid development of the South and South West regions, they gradually moved away, towards the Central, South Eastern and North Eastern regions.

It has long been believed that a few stragglers had survived, especially in and around the world heritage site of Sinharaja forest.

Read on

Elephant calf reunited with mother after ditch rescue

Happy ending for displaced wild elephant calf reunited with mother - Courtesy of the Wildlife Trust of India (WTI)

December 2010. The thirty-hour ordeal of an Asian elephant calf trapped in a trench on a tea estate in eastern Assam ended on a happy note as rescuers successfully reunited it with its mother. Two captive elephants were deployed to keep the mother away from the rescue site as Assam Forest Department officials and an IFAW-WTI team helped the calf out of the trench.

Two month old calf
"The two month old male calf must have fallen into the trench when its herd was crossing the Bogapani tea estate. He was struggling to get out, and even the mother made several attempts to rescue the calf," said Forest Officer Siva Kumar. "The mother was very determined to stay with her calf, which made it difficult for us to carry out the rescue. We darted her to moderately sedate her, but she remained close to the calf, and it grew dark, so we could not complete the rescue operation on the first day."

The operation was resumed early the next day. The mother had moved away and the calf was hurriedly removed from the trench. The rescuers feared that the mother had left the calf and moved on, but she was sighted approaching the site soon after the calf was freed. The calf was walked to an open area towards its mother and released.

Second rescue

"The calf was unsteady and as it headed to its mother, it fell into another hole. Thankfully, this time the mother pulled the calf out! She began feeding it and soon the mother and the calf walked back to the forest," said Dr Abhijit Bhawal, IFAW-WTI veterinarian, who assisted in the rescue. "This is perhaps the first recorded reunion of an elephant calf separated from its herd from this area. We have attended to several cases involving displaced elephant calves earlier too, but these calves had to be admitted to the Centre for Wildlife Rehabilitation and Conservation (CWRC) near Kaziranga," he added.

Releasing orphaned elephants
In another recent rescue, a calf that was found alone was admitted to the IFAW-WTI run CWRC, after reunion attempts proved unsuccessful. "Generally, when these calves are found alone, local people in their goodwill attempt to pet and touch the calf seeking blessings, as elephants are considered an embodiment of Lord Ganesha. In that case, the people had applied mustard oil and vermillion on the calf out of devotion. The calf was introduced to a herd that was nearby (which may or may not have been its natal herd), but it was abandoned and left behind," said Dr Rathin Barman, Coordinator, WTI.

This calf is currently being hand-raised at CWRC along with ten other elephant calves rescued from various parts of Assam. A few of the older calves will be relocated to Manas National Park early next year, where they will undergo a prolonged acclimatisation in the wild for reintegration with wild herds.

Five elephant calves hand-raised at CWRC have already been released in Manas NP, as part of this Elephant Reintegration Project.

http://www.wildlifeextra.com/do/ecco.py/view_item?listid=1&listcatid=1&listitemid=9201

Elephant ultrasound

Elephant maternity image

November 2010. With a tiny trunk already visible, this incredible image of an elephant in utero shows George, ZSL Whipsnade Zoo's new arrival, 19 months before he was born. Seen here at approximately 3 months into its 22-month pregnancy, the elephant embryo is clearly visible using 3D ultrasound scanners.

Ultrasound scans are carried out throughout the pregnancy, much like with humans, to monitor the health and well-being of mum and baby.

Now 6 months old, George weighs around 60 stone and is a boisterous member of the herd of Asian elephants at the Zoo in Dunstable, Bedfordshire.

http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/elephant-ultrasound.html