Elephants Elephants - Wildpro - Twycross Zoo

and a lack of foraging opportunities. Consequently attempts MUST be made
to closely match feeding activity seen in the wild. For elephants this can be
achieved by providing more poorer quality food (nutritionally) and increasing
the intake time.
Provision of a Suitable Environment
The animal’s environment should be maintained so that physical distress is
avoided. Management practices MUST not predispose animals to injury or
strain.
Provision of Animal Healthcare
Every attempt should be made to ensure the animal’s physical well-being is
maintained. Management practices, which may compromise physical wellbeing
in terms of injury or disease risk, should be avoided. Thus rather than
merely treating foot problems, which requires training, zoos MUST develop
environments in which foot problems are unlikely to occur.
Provision of Opportunity to Express Most Normal Behaviour
Attempts should be made to identify which aspects of behaviour are
important to the elephant, and subsequently to provide for the expression of
these as far as possible. Attempts should also be made to provide animals
with some choice and control over the way in which they spend their time.
Reference to wild time-budgets will be required.
Provision of Protection from Fear and Distress
Every attempt should be made to ensure that fear is not a significant part of
the life of elephants in captivity. Thus the role of fear in training should be
minimised and training which might cause a fearful response should only be
used if there is a proven net benefit to the animal’s welfare.
3.3 The Captive Environment
The welfare of elephants is to a large extent dependant on the size and
furnishing of the enclosure, the composition of the group and the
establishment of enrichment protocols. Various guidelines are available (AZA
2001) (Olson et al 1994) and the Federal Office for Nature Conservation in
Germany also issue guidelines; this section is designed to provide guidance
for a satisfactory enclosure and group composition that allows for modern
elephant management. It is important to note that standards listed are the
MINIMUM mandatory standards required by members; the word MUST is
used for each of these. Members who do not currently comply with these
have a minimum period of five years from 2002 within which so to do.
Different zoos will be able to fulfil these requirements to a greater or lesser
extent but all are duty bound to continually strive to reach the highest possible
standards. Otherwise zoos are strongly urged to find alternative
accommodation for their elephants regardless of perceived commercial
considerations. Collections should inform the Elephant TAG what their plans
are regarding compliance to requirements, for the following five year period.
This plan must be submitted within the next year.
37