Department of Biology, University of Turku, Turku, Finland.
Myanma Timber Enterprise, Yangon, Myanmar.
PLoS One. 2019 Jan 31;14(1):e0209701. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0209701. eCollection 2019.
The current extinction crisis leaves us increasingly reliant on captive populations to maintain vulnerable species. Approximately one third of Asian elephants (Elephas maximus) are living in semi-captive conditions in range countries. Their relationship with humans stretches back millennia, yet elephants have never been fully domesticated. We rely on the expertise of traditional handlers (mahouts) to manage these essentially wild animals, yet this profession may be threatened in the modern day. Here, we study the handling system of semi-captive timber elephants in Myanmar; the largest global semi-captive population (~5 000). We investigate how recent changes in Myanmar may have affected the keeping system and mahout-elephant interactions. Structured interviews investigated changes to mahout attitude and experience over the last two decades, as perceived by those who had worked in the industry for at least 10 years (n = 23) and as evaluated in current mahouts (n = 210), finding mahouts today are younger (median age 22yrs), less experienced (median experience 3yrs), and change elephants frequently, threatening traditional knowledge transfer. Mahout-elephant interactions manifested as 5 components ('job appreciation'; 'experience is necessary'; 'human-elephant interaction'; 'own knowledge'; 'elephant relationship'), according to Principal Components Analysis. Experienced mahouts and mahouts of bulls and younger elephants were more likely to agree that 'experience is necessary' to be a mahout. Mahouts with difficult elephants scored lower on 'human-elephant interaction' and a mahout's perception of their 'own knowledge' increased with more experience. Our finding of change in terms of mahout experience, age and commitment in the largest semi-captive elephant population suggests need for formal training and assessment of impacts on elephant welfare; these are findings applicable to thousands of elephants under similar management.
当前的物种灭绝危机使得我们越来越依赖圈养种群来维持脆弱物种。大约三分之一的亚洲象（Elephas maximus）生活在分布国家的半圈养环境中。它们与人类的关系可以追溯到几千年前，但大象从未被完全驯化。我们依靠传统驯象师（mahouts）的专业知识来管理这些本质上仍处于野生状态的动物，但这个职业在现代可能受到威胁。在这里，我们研究了缅甸半圈养木材象的饲养系统；这是全球最大的半圈养种群（约 5000 头）。我们调查了缅甸最近的变化如何影响饲养系统和驯象师与大象的互动。通过结构访谈，我们调查了过去 20 年中驯象师态度和经验的变化，这些变化是由在该行业工作至少 10 年的人（n=23）感知到的，以及当前的驯象师（n=210）评估的，发现现在的驯象师年龄更小（中位数年龄为 22 岁），经验更少（中位数经验为 3 年），并且经常更换大象，威胁到传统知识的传授。驯象师与大象的互动表现为 5 个组成部分（“工作欣赏”；“经验是必要的”；“人象互动”；“自己的知识”；“象关系”），根据主成分分析。有经验的驯象师和公牛和年轻大象的驯象师更有可能同意“经验是必要的”才能成为驯象师。与难驯大象的驯象师在“人象互动”方面得分较低，而驯象师对自己的“知识”的感知随着经验的增加而增加。在最大的半圈养大象种群中，我们发现了驯象师经验、年龄和承诺方面的变化，这表明需要对大象福利的影响进行正式培训和评估；这些发现适用于数千头处于类似管理下的大象。
