Social Life of Captive Asian Elephants (Elephas maximus) in Southern India: Implications for Elephant Welfare
Abstract
Asian elephants in the wild live in complex social societies; in captivity, however, management often occurs in solitary conditions, especially at the temples and private places of India. To investigate the effect of social isolation, this study assessed the social group sizes and the presence of stereotypies among 140 captive Asian elephants managed in 3 captive systems (private, temple, and forest department) in Tamil Nadu, India, between 2003 and 2005. The majority of the facilities in the private (82%) and temple (95%) systems held a single elephant without opportunity for social interaction. The forest department managed the elephants in significantly larger groups than the private and temple systems. Among the 3 systems, the proportion of elephants with stereotypies was the highest in temple (49%) followed by private system (26%) and the forest department facility (6%); this correlates with the social isolation trend observed in the 3 systems and suggests a possible link between social isolation and abnormal elephant behavior separate from other environmental factors. The results of this study indicate it would be of greater benefit to elephant well being to keep the patchily distributed solitary temple and private elephants who are socially compatible and free from contagious diseases in small social groups at "common elephant houses" for socialization.
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- Authors
- Vanitha, V., Thiyagesan, K., & Baskaran, N.
- Affiliations
- Indian Institute of Science Bangalore (IN)
- ORCID
- Baskaran, Nagarajan
- Venue
- Journal of Applied Animal Welfare Science
- Publisher
- Informa UK Limited
- Published
- 2011-01
- Volume
- 14
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 42-58
- ISSN
- 1088-8705 (ISSN-L)
- 1532-7604
- OpenAlex
- W2086592562
- Cited by
- 32
- References
- 29
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2025: 1 · 2024: 1 · 2023: 2 · 2022: 3 · 2021: 2 · 2020: 4 · 2019: 4 · 2018: 6 · 2017: 3 · 2015: 3 · 2012: 1
- FWCI
- 1.00
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Journal of Applied Animal Welfare Science (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- NOT FOUND REPOSITORY (Indian Institute of Science Bangalore) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- Indian Institute of Science
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Veterinary › Small Animals › Animal Behavior and Welfare Studies
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Ecology › Wildlife Ecology and Conservation
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Primate Behavior and Ecology
- Keywords
- Asian elephant, captive elephants, social isolation, stereotypy, abnormal behavior, social group size, elephant welfare, socialization, Tamil Nadu
- MeSH terms
- Analysis of Variance, Animals, Animal Welfare, Behavior, Animal, Elephants, Social Behavior, Social Environment, Social Isolation, Stereotyped Behavior, Trees, Private Sector, Observation
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