Elephants Elephants - Wildpro - Twycross Zoo

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Zoos and Aquariums 2005b) should be consulted Although no zoos in the UK
currently give elephant rides to the general public, there are still some in
North America that do.
3.17 Research
Zoos keeping elephants MUST make a contribution to our knowledge of
elephant biology and captive management. Much of our knowledge about
elephant biology (reproductive biology, analysis of vocalisations) has been
gained through research on captive animals (Smith and Hutchins 2000).
Research on chemical communication is presently being carried out on captive
animals which may eventually be of use in manufacturing a repellent against
crop-raiding elephants.
Technologies relevant to field conservation can be tested on captive animals
before being used in nature. Contraceptive methods may prove to be of use in
controlling populations in the wild. Work on extracting DNA from faecal
samples, perfected on captive elephants, is of great use in determining
relatedness between individuals in the wild.
Other research topics that require more work include: vitamin E in diets,
hormones and reproduction, measurement of faecal steroids, cognition and
special memory (Olson 1994). Autopsies may provide very useful material for
research.
There is a great need for survey work to aid our understanding of good
captive practice, in relation to management and training regimes, enclosure
design, structure and size and group composition. (see Chapter 6.7, Appendix
7).
Collections should encourage research on the use of enclosures, especially
when animals are given access to and/or moved to new areas (Rees 2000b).
There is a great need for monitoring of behaviour within captive groups
(Garai 1992), and methods for establishing useful behaviour profiles of
animals. Researchers should be encouraged to undertake this sort of project
and collections holding animals should make it a priority to fill in and return
research questionnaires. Further work, taking in more collections, on
circumstances surrounding an elephant attack such the preliminary work
recently carried out by Ray (2002) is required.
Each zoo should contribute in some way to field conservation of elephants
and their habitats. This can be done through the Elephant TAG. Financial,
personnel, logistic and other support can be provided for research and
conservation programmes.
BIAZA has produced guidelines (Feistner and Gore 2002) on how to go about
research in zoos and these should be consulted 1.
1 See the BIAZA’s Zoo Research Guidelines series available from the BIAZA Office and on the
website.