Behavioural Impact of Enclosure Relocation on Asiatic Elephants (Elephas maximus) in Artis Royal Zoo, Amsterdam.

<p>It can have negative consequences when the standards of well-being of animal are not met in a captive environment. The main priority of this study was to determine whether a more enriched enclosure could reduce stereotypic behaviour and increase natural behaviours in captive Asiatic elephants, and thus increase well-being. In order to answer this question the Asiatic elephants in Artis Royal Zoo were studied. Artis Royal Zoo had built a new enclosure to improve the well-being of their elephants. Activity budgets of the three elephants of both the new and old enclosure were studied. Observation was done over a period of three months ,between April 2017 and July 2017 for a total of 26 days. Only Thong-Thai, mother of Yindee and Sanuk, exhibited stereotypic behaviour. There was a significant difference found between the stereotypic behaviour averages per enclosure when consume/forage behaviour and enclosures were included in the model. Both Thong-Thai and Yindee reduced their consume/foraging behaviour when relocated. All three elephants increased in walking behaviour when relocated with a maximum difference exhibited by Yindee. Only Yindee increased in enrichment use behaviour. Also, like Rees (2009), a negative correlation was found between stereotypic behaviour and consume/foraging behaviour in both enclosures. The behavioural data can only give an indication of improved well-being and we may not have seen extreme positive signs yet but we can say that the new enclosure provides a more abundant set of options to the elephants. These extra options remove mental and physical barriers and stimulate the animal to exhibit natural behaviour which can only be a good thing (McPhee & Carlstead, 2010).