Department of Biological Sciences, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, North Carolina, USA.
Department of Statistics, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, North Carolina, USA.
Zoo Biol. 2021 Jan;40(1):9-19. doi: 10.1002/zoo.21575. Epub 2020 Oct 11.
While recent work has assessed how environmental and managerial changes influence elephant welfare across multiple zoos, few studies have addressed the effects of management changes within a single institution. In this paper, we examine how management changes related to social structure and diet affect the behavior of a group of zoo elephants over a 23-month period while also considering underlying factors, such as time of day, hormonal cycle, and individual differences. We recorded individual behaviors using 2-min scan samples during 60-min sessions. We analyzed behavioral changes across several study variables using generalized linear mixed models. We found that increasing browse can improve opportunities for foraging throughout the day but may not be sufficient to reduce repetitive behaviors. We observed that increasing group size and integration of bulls with cows can lead to increased social interaction in African elephants. Our results highlight the importance of using multiple management alterations to address elephant welfare, and considering environmental factors, when making management decisions.
虽然最近的研究评估了环境和管理变化如何影响多个动物园的大象福利，但很少有研究涉及单个机构内的管理变化的影响。在本文中，我们研究了与社会结构和饮食相关的管理变化如何在 23 个月的时间内影响一群动物园大象的行为，同时考虑了潜在因素，如一天中的时间、激素周期和个体差异。我们使用 2 分钟扫描样本在 60 分钟的时段内记录个体行为。我们使用广义线性混合模型分析了几个研究变量的行为变化。我们发现，增加可食用植物的供应可以改善一整天的觅食机会，但可能不足以减少重复行为。我们观察到，增加群体大小和公牛与母牛的整合可以导致非洲象的社会互动增加。我们的结果强调了在做出管理决策时，使用多种管理改变来解决大象福利问题并考虑环境因素的重要性。
