CoChat
Sign Up
Cited by 83Animal Behavior and Welfare StudiesReproductive Physiology in LivestockVeterinary Medicine and Surgery

Reproductive health assessment of female elephants in north American zoos and association of husbandry practices with reproductive dysfunction in African elephants (Loxodonta africana)

Open access
Brown, Janine L., Paris, Stephen, Prado-Oviedo, Natalia A., Meehan, Cheryl L., Hogan, Jennifer N., Morfeld, Kari A., Carlstead, Kathy·2016·PLoS ONE
DOI 10.1371/journal.pone.0145673PMC PMC4945061
Open this paper in CoChat — free accountOpen PDF

Abstract

As part of a multi-institutional study of zoo elephant welfare, we evaluated female elephants managed by zoos accredited by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums and applied epidemiological methods to determine what factors in the zoo environment are associated with reproductive problems, including ovarian acyclicity and hyperprolactinemia. Bi-weekly blood samples were collected from 95 African (Loxodonta africana) and 75 Asian (Elephas maximus) (8-55 years of age) elephants over a 12-month period for analysis of serum progestogens and prolactin. Females were categorized as normal cycling (regular 13- to 17-week cycles), irregular cycling (cycles longer or shorter than normal) or acyclic (baseline progestogens, <0.1 ng/ml throughout), and having Low/Normal (<14 or 18 ng/ml) or High (≥14 or 18 ng/ml) prolactin for Asian and African elephants, respectively. Rates of normal cycling, acyclicity and irregular cycling were 73.2, 22.5 and 4.2% for Asian, and 48.4, 37.9 and 13.7% for African elephants, respectively, all of which differed between species (P < 0.05). For African elephants, univariate assessment found that social isolation decreased and higher enrichment diversity increased the chance a female would cycle normally. The strongest multi-variable models included Age (positive) and Enrichment Diversity (negative) as important factors of acyclicity among African elephants. The Asian elephant data set was not robust enough to support multi-variable analyses of cyclicity status. Additionally, only 3% of Asian elephants were found to be hyperprolactinemic as compared to 28% of Africans, so predictive analyses of prolactin status were conducted on African elephants only. The strongest multi-variable model included Age (positive), Enrichment Diversity (negative), Alternate Feeding Methods (negative) and Social Group Contact (positive) as predictors of hyperprolactinemia. In summary, the incidence of ovarian cycle problems and hyperprolactinemia predominantly affects African elephants, and increases in social stability and feeding and enrichment diversity may have positive influences on hormone status.

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1371/journal.pone.0145673

Cites

93 of 93 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Claims the paper makes

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

  • In 2016, a series of epidemiological studies of elephants in North American zoos revealed problems associated with ovarian acyclicity, health and musculoskeletal function, stereotypic behaviors, and high body condition scores.

    “In 2016, a series of epidemiological studies of elephants in North American zoos revealed problems associated with ovarian acyclicity (45), health and musculoskeletal function (46), stereotypic behaviors (35), and high body condition scores (47).”

    From Comparison of animal welfare assessment tools and methodologies: need for an effective approach for captive elephants in Asia (2024) · cites this paper as [45]

Self-check

Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

The self-check needs the paper’s full text.

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

4 of the 97 references couldn’t be matched to a known paper.

Research works printed but not linked: 5

  1. [4]Brown JL. Reproductive endocrine monitoring of elephants: An essential tool for assisting captive management. Zoo Biol. 2000; 19: 347– 368.
  2. [9]Brown JL, Citino SB, Bush M, Lehnhardt J, Phillips LG. Cyclic patterns of luteinizing hormone, follicle-stimulating hormone, inhibin, and progesterone secretion in the Asian elephant (Elephas maximus). J Zoo Wildl Med. 1991; 1: 49– 57.
  3. [42]Brown JL, Lehnhardt J. Secretory patterns of serum prolactin in Asian (Elephas maximus) and African (Loxodonta africana) elephants during different reproductive states: Comparison with concentrations in a non-cycling African elephant. Zoo Biol. 1997; 16: 149– 159.
  4. [64]Shepherdson DJ. Environmental enrichment for elephants: Current status and future directions. J Elephant Manag Assoc. 1999; 10: 69– 77.
  5. [65]Shepherdson DJ, Mellen JD, Hutchins M, editors. Second nature: Environmental enrichment for captive animals Washington, D.C.; Smithsonian Institution Press; 1998.

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Related

Authors
Brown, J. L., Paris, S., Prado-Oviedo, N. A., Meehan, C. L., Hogan, J. N., Morfeld, K. A., & Carlstead, K.
Affiliations
Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute (US)
Corresponding author
Brown, Janine L.
ORCID
Venue
PLoS ONE
Publisher
Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Published
2016-07-14
Volume
11
Issue
7
Pages
e0145673
ISSN
1932-6203 (ISSN-L)
DOI
10.1371/journal.pone.0145673
PMC
PMC4945061
OpenAlex
W2472595233
Cited by
83
References
97
Citations by year
2026: 4 · 2025: 5 · 2024: 5 · 2023: 10 · 2022: 8 · 2021: 8 · 2020: 8 · 2019: 15 · 2018: 5 · 2017: 8 · 2016: 6
FWCI
17.44
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
Locations
  • PLoS ONE (publishedVersion, public-domain)
  • Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, public-domain)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion, public-domain)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
Funders
Institute of Museum and Library Services
Topics
  • Health Sciences › Veterinary › Small Animals › Animal Behavior and Welfare Studies
  • Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Agronomy and Crop Science › Reproductive Physiology in Livestock
  • Health Sciences › Veterinary › Small Animals › Veterinary Medicine and Surgery
Keywords
zoo elephants, Loxodonta africana, Asian elephant, reproductive disorders, hyperprolactinemia, prolactin, progestogens, reproductive cycle, husbandry practices, social isolation, feeding methods, captive animal welfare, zoo animal health
MeSH terms
Age Factors, Animals, Animal Husbandry, Animal Welfare, Animals, Zoo, Elephants, Female, Housing, Animal, Progestins, Prolactin, Reproduction, Social Environment, Social Isolation, United States, Estrous Cycle

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review