Development of a behavioural welfare assessment tool for routine use with captive elephants
Open accessAbstract
There has been much concern in recent years about the welfare of elephants in zoos across North America and Europe. While some previous studies have assessed captive elephant welfare at a particular point in time, there has been little work to develop methods which could be used for regular, routine welfare assessment. Such assessment is important in order to track changes in welfare over time. A welfare assessment tool should be rapid, reliable, and simple to complete, without requiring specialist training and facilities; welfare assessments based on behavioural observations are well suited to this purpose. This report describes the development of a new elephant behavioural welfare assessment tool designed for routine use by elephant keepers. Tool development involved: (i) identification of behavioural indicators of welfare from the literature and from focus groups with relevant stakeholders; (ii) development of a prototype tool; (iii) testing of the tool at five UK zoological institutions, involving 29 elephants (representing 46% of the total UK captive elephant population of 63 animals); (iv) assessment of feasibility and reliability of aspects of the prototype tool; (v) assessment of the validity of each element of the tool to reflect the relevant behaviour by comparing detailed behavioural observations with data from the prototype tool; (vi) assessment of known-groups criterion validity by comparing prototype tool scores in individuals with demographics associated with better or worse welfare; (vii) development of a finalised tool which incorporated all elements of the tool which met the criteria set for validity and reliability. Elements of the tool requiring further consideration are discussed, as are considerations for appropriate application and interpretation of scores. This novel behavioural welfare assessment tool can be used by elephant-holding facilities for routine behavioural welfare monitoring, which can inform adjustments to individual welfare plans for each elephant in their collection, to help facilities further assess and improve captive elephant welfare. This study provides an example of how an evidence-based behavioural welfare assessment tool for use by animal caretakers can be developed within the constraints of zoo-based research, which could be applied to a range of captive species.
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EBWAT reliability and validity were tested on 63 elephants at five UK elephant-holding facilities and are now used by 11 UK and Irish zoological facilities.
“The reliability and validity of the tool were tested on 63 elephants at five UK elephant-holding facilities and are now used by 11 UK and Irish zoological facilities (23).”
From Comparison of animal welfare assessment tools and methodologies: need for an effective approach for captive elephants in Asia (2024) · cites this paper as [23]
The Methods (Animals and housing; page not provided) say the tool was tested at five UK facilities, but with 29 elephants—not 63. The 63 were the total UK captive elephant population. The passages reviewed do not establish that 11 UK and Irish facilities now use the tool. (LLM, conf=0.90)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredTools are increasingly using behavioral indicators associated with comfort, play, affiliation, foraging, and sociality to evaluate mental and overall welfare states, in addition to commonly used and validated negative welfare indicators like stereotypies, poor health and reproduction, and high mortality and morbidity.
“Tools are increasingly using behavioral indicators associated with comfort, play, affiliation, foraging, and sociality to evaluate mental and overall welfare states, in addition to commonly used and validated negative welfare indicators like stereotypies, poor health and reproduction, and high mortality and morbidity (23, 44, 101, 102).”
From Comparison of animal welfare assessment tools and methodologies: need for an effective approach for captive elephants in Asia (2024) · cites this paper as [23]
Split into 2 atoms — 1 confirmed, 1 partially supported, 0 disputed, 0 misattributed, 0 unverifiable. Expand the claim to see per-atom verdicts.
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredEBWAT utilizes qualitative assessments of individual daytime and nighttime behavior.
“Among the few elephant-specific welfare assessment tools is EBWAT, which utilizes qualitative assessments of individual daytime and nighttime behavior (23).”
From Comparison of animal welfare assessment tools and methodologies: need for an effective approach for captive elephants in Asia (2024) · cites this paper as [23]
Previously established behavioral measures for captive elephants and welfare factors associated with tourist camps can be integrated and adapted for further testing.
“Previously established behavioral measures for captive elephants (23, 101, 102) and welfare factors associated with tourist camps can be integrated and adapted for further testing.”
From Comparison of animal welfare assessment tools and methodologies: need for an effective approach for captive elephants in Asia (2024) · cites this paper as [23]
There have been several recent advances in developing systematic evidence-based welfare assessment methods for captive elephants.
“To that end, there have been several recent advances in developing systematic evidence-based welfare assessment methods for captive elephants (Meehan et al., 2019;Williams et al., 2019aWilliams et al., , 2019b;;Yon et al., 2019;Bansiddhi, Brown & Thitaram, 2020;Bansiddhi et al., 2020”
From Continuing challenges of elephant captivity: the captive environment, health issues, and welfare implications (2024) · cites this paper as Yon et al., 2019
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“The reliability and validity of the tool were tested on 63 elephants at five UK elephant-holding facilities and are now used by 11 UK and Irish zoological facilities (23).”
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- Authors
- Yon, L., Williams, E., Harvey, N. D., & Asher, L.
- Affiliations
- University of Nottingham (GB)
- Nottingham Trent University (GB)
- Newcastle University (GB)
- Corresponding author
- Yon, Lisa
- Venue
- PLoS ONE
- Publisher
- Public Library of Science (PLoS)
- Published
- 2019-02-06
- Volume
- 14
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- e0210783
- ISSN
- 1932-6203 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC6364905
- OpenAlex
- W2911385253
- Cited by
- 83
- References
- 45
- Citations by year
- 2026: 12 · 2025: 11 · 2024: 14 · 2023: 13 · 2022: 8 · 2021: 11 · 2020: 9 · 2019: 4
- FWCI
- 10.54
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- PLoS ONE (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Repository@Nottingham (University of Nottingham) (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- Nottingham Trent University's Institutional Repository (Nottingham Trent Repository) (acceptedVersion)
- Repository@Nottingham (University of Nottingham) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- Figshare (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- Newcastle University ePrints (Newcastle Univesity) (cc-by)
- Funders
- Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (WC1081)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Veterinary › Small Animals › Animal Behavior and Welfare Studies
- Health Sciences › Veterinary › Small Animals › Veterinary Pharmacology and Anesthesia
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Primate Behavior and Ecology
- Keywords
- captive elephants, animal welfare assessment, zoo animals
- MeSH terms
- Behavior Observation Techniques, Animals, Animal Welfare, Animals, Zoo, Elephants, Feasibility Studies, Female, United Kingdom, Male, Reproducibility of Results
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