Food and feeding of captive Asian elephants (Elephas maximus) in the three management facilities at Tamil Nadu, South India.

Abstract Asian elephants (Elephas maximus) in wild feed on diverse spectrum of food plants along with seasonal shift in diet selection. While in captivity, they are often not fed in accordance with their food preference in natural conditions. We evaluated the food, and feeding and health conditions of captive elephants managed by Private, Temple and Forest Department facilities in Tamil Nadu, Southern India. Results on food and feeding reveal that Private and Temple facilities have stall fed their elephants with significantly less food in quantity and quality than the elephants in Forest Department facility that had access to natural feeding apart from supplementary diet. A significant proportion of elephants under the former two facilities were fed with monotonous green fodder (one-two spp.) round the year. The private elephants, especially those owned by keepers were fed less food and put into more work, while the Temple elephants with moderate food supply were kept mostly in chain without much exercise. Data on health assessment show that the body conditions of Private elephants are poorer as compared to the elephants in Temple and Forest facilities. Lack of nutrients including minerals and vitamins due to the inadequate quantity and quality of green fodder and supplementary diet have been attributed to the poor health including deficiency diseases among the Private and Temple elephants. We make recommendations to improve the food and feeding practices for the long term conservation of these captive elephants