Veasey Jake Stuart
School of Animal, Rural and Environmental Sciences, Nottingham Trent University, Southwell NG25 0QF, UK.
Animals (Basel). 2019 Dec 23;10(1):39. doi: 10.3390/ani10010039.
The welfare status of elephants under human care has been a contentious issue for two decades or more in numerous western countries. Much effort has gone into assessing the welfare of captive elephants at individual and population levels with little consensus having been achieved in relation to both the welfare requirements of captive elephants, or their absolute welfare status. A methodology capable of identifying the psychological priorities of elephants would greatly assist in both managing and assessing captive elephant welfare. Here, a Delphi-based Animal Welfare Priority Identification System (APWIS) is trialled to evaluate the reliability of the methodology and to determine the welfare significance of individual behaviours and cognitive processes for Asian elephants (). APWIS examines the motivational characteristics, evolutionary significance and established welfare impacts of individual behaviours and cognitive processes of each species being assessed. The assessment carried out here indicates appetitive behaviours essential for survival in the wild, together species-specific social and cognitive opportunities are likely to be important to the welfare of Asian elephant in captivity. The output of this assessment, for the first time, provides comprehensive species-specific psychological/welfare priorities for Asian elephants that should be used to inform husbandry guidelines, habitat design and management strategies and can also provide a valuable reference tool for Asian elephant welfare assessment. The effective application of these insights could lead to substantive improvements in captive Asian elephant welfare.
在许多西方国家，人工饲养大象的福利状况在二十多年来一直是个有争议的问题。人们在个体和种群层面评估圈养大象的福利方面付出了很多努力，但在圈养大象的福利需求或其绝对福利状况方面几乎没有达成共识。一种能够识别大象心理优先事项的方法将极大地有助于管理和评估圈养大象的福利。在此，对基于德尔菲法的动物福利优先事项识别系统（APWIS）进行了试验，以评估该方法的可靠性，并确定个体行为和认知过程对亚洲象福利的重要性。APWIS考察了被评估的每个物种的个体行为和认知过程的动机特征、进化意义以及既定的福利影响。此处进行的评估表明，对野生生存至关重要的欲求行为以及特定物种的社会和认知机会可能对圈养亚洲象的福利很重要。此次评估的结果首次为亚洲象提供了全面的、特定物种的心理/福利优先事项，这些优先事项应用于指导饲养指南、栖息地设计和管理策略，也可为亚洲象福利评估提供有价值的参考工具。有效应用这些见解可能会使圈养亚洲象的福利得到实质性改善。
