Zoos in for a rough ride, but where's the information from?
Well, it has been a while since elephants were in the news on a scale like this, has it not?
I guess that most of those of you who read this have 'elephant' somewhere in their Google Alerts and have seen the headlines screaming "Zoos kill elephants", "Cruel Zoos Cause Death to Jumbos" and so on and so forth. Being a dedicated fence sitter I tried to stay out of the debate - as indeed I do the to zoo or not to zoo question - sort of intrinsically aware that it is not a good idea to keep eles in zoos but also of the opinion that while eles are on the streets, working, underfed in trekking camps, with wild eles throughout the Asian range fighting and dieing for their land and fodder then a good zoo and an ambassador-for-the-species role may not be a bad thing, those eles in zoos may get to call themselves the lucky ones.
May.
Then along come the headlines - zoo elephant average lifespan = 19 years, domesticated in range = 40+ years, wild = 56 - this is truly shocking, damning even, the political campaigning organisation that got hold of the research (though not the researchers themselves) use this to advocate the ban of elephants in zoos.
I'm not advocating zoo life, nor am I condemning it, just trying to follow a balanced approach so let us take a step back.
So let me play researchers' advocate for a second, the figures are based on three populations, European zoo elephants reaching back to the 1960's, a protected population in Ambosseli National Park in Kenya and Dr Khyne U Mar's studbook from the Burmese timber industry, from memory this amazing book stretched back from the late 1800's to the mid eighties or nineties when Dr. Khyne left Burma.
What's wrong with this picture? - it is the most extensive data set available anywhere in the world but...
Zoo's will argue that they have improved no end since the 1960's, their understanding of elephants and their welfare have improved also, larger enclosure sizes, more emphasis put on group interaction, on stimulating games and activities.
They will argue their life expectancy of adult elephants will have improved over the years - interestingly, thanks to an elephantine herpes virus, I'm not sure their overall life expectancy will have as many calves in zoos (and, in certain populations, Sri Lanka for example, in the wild) are dieing under three years old, zoo's will argue that they are the people conducting research into the prevention and cure this relatively newly discovered and potentially devastating disease for wild and domestic elephants.
I don't know anything about the Ambosseli population of wild elephants, whether they are researched well enough for still births to be counted (as they are, and, nowadays, investigated in zoo's), whether there is significant human-elephant conflict, whether EEHV is present. But will suffice to comment that a wild elephant's lot throughout it's range is probably not as comfortable or as safe as it is in Ambosseli.
From my understanding the majority of data from Dr. Khyne's studbook was taken from the days when the Burmese timber industry was a beacon of elephant welfare and sustainable logging processes, truly amazing and impeccable systems were in place to ensure the survival of the forests for centuries to come and the survival of the animals that allowed those forests to be sustainably harvested. I have no way of knowing if these systems are still in place, but somehow doubt it.
I do know that the systems in place in Myanmar are not in place in other countries throughout the range and I would hope in Thailand we have a better life expectancy than 40, but I would never claim our systems are better (though have improved since the 1800's, as will the Burmese, with improved veterinary understanding and treatment). Also, from my understanding, most Burmese timber elephants were wild-caught at sub-adult thereby eliminating the problems of infant death from the statistics - did the stud book record those elephants that died during capture and training or only those that lived to become working elephants? I simply don't know.
Please understand, I welcome the debate, I'm not condemning anyone. As the researchers and Dr Khyne recommended behind the screaming, campaigning, political headlines, and due to the large nature of the data set the Zoo Keepers agreed, let us use this research to investigate how to make the lives of zoo elephants better - indeed the zoo keepers point out that the problems of foot rot and obesity have long been acknowledged and, in many zoos, are being tackled, the problems of stress related to loneliness and inactivity also.
The only thing I am trying to suggest is that we read behind the headlines of each and every piece of research we see, try to understand how comparable the data sets might be and see how applicable they may be to the global populations and the current situation as a whole.
The researchers involved did this, it is the duty of the media and the campaigning organisation to do so also.
I guess that most of those of you who read this have 'elephant' somewhere in their Google Alerts and have seen the headlines screaming "Zoos kill elephants", "Cruel Zoos Cause Death to Jumbos" and so on and so forth. Being a dedicated fence sitter I tried to stay out of the debate - as indeed I do the to zoo or not to zoo question - sort of intrinsically aware that it is not a good idea to keep eles in zoos but also of the opinion that while eles are on the streets, working, underfed in trekking camps, with wild eles throughout the Asian range fighting and dieing for their land and fodder then a good zoo and an ambassador-for-the-species role may not be a bad thing, those eles in zoos may get to call themselves the lucky ones.
May.
Then along come the headlines - zoo elephant average lifespan = 19 years, domesticated in range = 40+ years, wild = 56 - this is truly shocking, damning even, the political campaigning organisation that got hold of the research (though not the researchers themselves) use this to advocate the ban of elephants in zoos.
I'm not advocating zoo life, nor am I condemning it, just trying to follow a balanced approach so let us take a step back.
So let me play researchers' advocate for a second, the figures are based on three populations, European zoo elephants reaching back to the 1960's, a protected population in Ambosseli National Park in Kenya and Dr Khyne U Mar's studbook from the Burmese timber industry, from memory this amazing book stretched back from the late 1800's to the mid eighties or nineties when Dr. Khyne left Burma.
What's wrong with this picture? - it is the most extensive data set available anywhere in the world but...
Zoo's will argue that they have improved no end since the 1960's, their understanding of elephants and their welfare have improved also, larger enclosure sizes, more emphasis put on group interaction, on stimulating games and activities.
They will argue their life expectancy of adult elephants will have improved over the years - interestingly, thanks to an elephantine herpes virus, I'm not sure their overall life expectancy will have as many calves in zoos (and, in certain populations, Sri Lanka for example, in the wild) are dieing under three years old, zoo's will argue that they are the people conducting research into the prevention and cure this relatively newly discovered and potentially devastating disease for wild and domestic elephants.
I don't know anything about the Ambosseli population of wild elephants, whether they are researched well enough for still births to be counted (as they are, and, nowadays, investigated in zoo's), whether there is significant human-elephant conflict, whether EEHV is present. But will suffice to comment that a wild elephant's lot throughout it's range is probably not as comfortable or as safe as it is in Ambosseli.
From my understanding the majority of data from Dr. Khyne's studbook was taken from the days when the Burmese timber industry was a beacon of elephant welfare and sustainable logging processes, truly amazing and impeccable systems were in place to ensure the survival of the forests for centuries to come and the survival of the animals that allowed those forests to be sustainably harvested. I have no way of knowing if these systems are still in place, but somehow doubt it.
I do know that the systems in place in Myanmar are not in place in other countries throughout the range and I would hope in Thailand we have a better life expectancy than 40, but I would never claim our systems are better (though have improved since the 1800's, as will the Burmese, with improved veterinary understanding and treatment). Also, from my understanding, most Burmese timber elephants were wild-caught at sub-adult thereby eliminating the problems of infant death from the statistics - did the stud book record those elephants that died during capture and training or only those that lived to become working elephants? I simply don't know.
Please understand, I welcome the debate, I'm not condemning anyone. As the researchers and Dr Khyne recommended behind the screaming, campaigning, political headlines, and due to the large nature of the data set the Zoo Keepers agreed, let us use this research to investigate how to make the lives of zoo elephants better - indeed the zoo keepers point out that the problems of foot rot and obesity have long been acknowledged and, in many zoos, are being tackled, the problems of stress related to loneliness and inactivity also.
The only thing I am trying to suggest is that we read behind the headlines of each and every piece of research we see, try to understand how comparable the data sets might be and see how applicable they may be to the global populations and the current situation as a whole.
The researchers involved did this, it is the duty of the media and the campaigning organisation to do so also.
Zoo Life Erodes Elephant Health, Study Finds
December 11, 2008 - Campus Bulletin
Female elephants living in protected populations in Africa and Asia live longer than those in captivity in European zoos, according to new research by an international team of scientists that includes a University of Guelph professor.
The study led by Guelph Prof. Georgia Mason was published in the Dec. 12 issue of Science , the world's leading journal of scientific research. Mason conducted the research with Ros Clubb, her former graduate student, and four other researchers from the United Kingdom and Kenya.
Following the paper's publication, news stories about Mason's research have appeared in more than 1,000 newspapers, magazines, and broadcast news reports around the world, including the New York Times , Time magazine, the Globe and Mail , National Geographic, New Scientist, the Los Angeles Times , National Public Radio, CBC radio, ABC News, Discover magazine, Nature magazine, the Guardian, the Independent, the Telegraph , Scientific American, Times of India and China Daily.
The findings could mark the end of a long-standing debate about the physical and mental well being of zoo elephants, and may also bring about improvements in how these animals are kept.
"This is the first animal welfare paper to get into Science," said Mason, who holds the Canada Research Chair in animal welfare in Guelph's Department of Animal and Poultry Science. She is also an associated faculty member in U of G's Campbell Centre for the Study of Animal Welfare.
"These kinds of questions often generate more heat than light, and our research shows what can be found out by analysing objective data. We hope it provides a model for tackling similar issues with other species," she said (Watch the Science Podcast featuring Prof. Mason).
Using data on more than 4,500 elephants, the researchers found empirical evidence that zoos cause shortened adult life spans in both African and Asian elephants. In the most endangered species of elephant, the Asian, calf death rates were also elevated.
For this species, the researchers found that being born into a zoo(rather than being imported from the wild), being moved between zoos, and the possible loss of their mothers, all put animals at particular risk.
The authors looked at data on female Asian and African elephants from Amboseli National Park in Kenya as well as the Myanma Timber Enterprise and compared them to data on elephants in European zoos to reach these conclusions. Combined with the widespread health and reproductive problems documented in zoo elephants, these findings suggest that they suffer from both mental and physical ailments.
The authors recommend screening all zoo elephants for signs of stress and obesity, in order to identify individuals that might be in trouble. Until these animals’ problems can be solved, the researchers also call for an end to the importation of elephants from their native countries, the minimizing of inter-zoo transfers, and suggest that breeding elephants should be restricted to those zoos that exhibit no harmful effects in their captive-born animals.
Mason joined U of G in 2004. She had spent the past two decades studying, teaching and advising on animal welfare issues in England — including 10 years as a lecturer and scientist at Oxford.
She has also done extensive research on the welfare of elephants and carnivores in zoos and mink on fur farms, focusing on how different species vary in their response to captive husbandry. Her work has also appeared in publications such as Nature and New Scientist.
Guelph's Campbell Centre for the Study of Animal Welfare was the first of its kind in North America and second in the world. It includes undergraduate and graduate teaching programs and research projects, as well as public lectures, seminars, and educational opportunities for people with a variety of interests in animal welfare.
For more information, contact Communications and Public Affairs: Lori Bona Hunt, 519-824-4120, Ext. 53338/lhunt@uoguelph.ca, or Barry Gunn, Ext. 56982/bagunn@uoguelph.ca
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Elephants 'die earlier in zoos'
A new study comparing wild, captive and working elephants has found that living in zoos can significantly shorten the animals' lives.
Writing in the journal Science, researchers say obesity is a major cause of death in adult zoo elephants.
They also cite stress as the key factor in the death of young captive animals when they are moved from zoo to zoo.
They say ideally zoos should not take on new elephants if they cannot provide suitable environments.
Still births
The study focused on the lives of female elephants, comparing more than 4,500 individuals. The researchers looked at wild elephants in Kenya's Ambosseli National Park, working elephants in the Burmese logging industry, and zoo elephant populations in Europe.
For African elephants, the average lifespan in captivity was only 19 years compared with 56 years in the wild.
Rates of mortality amongst zoo-born Asian elephants were two to three times higher than for those born in the logging camps.
Ros Clubb from Britain's Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA) says diet and lifestyle are the key factors influencing elephant lifespan in zoos.
"The vast majority are overweight in zoos, this could explain the high still-birth rates and why they're dying early. Bigger mothers have bigger calves and more of these are still-born," she said.
Early death was also more likely to occur in captive animals born in the wild or transferred between zoos. Dr Clubb says this is probably caused by the stress of being taken away from their herd, mothers or family group.
"In the wild they live in large stable groups, separation does cause stress; we know this from studies of other species," she said.
Working elephants
Khyune Mar, now at the Department of Animal and Plant Sciences at Sheffield University, used to work for Myanma Timber Enterprise, the commercial arm of Burma's forest ministry.
The company uses elephants to haul logs from the forests. Analysis of the lives of these working Asian elephants was based on data Dr Mar collected in Burma.
She says their longer life expectancy - more than 40 years compared with less than 19 in zoo elephants - can be put down to their lifestyle; for half the time the Burmese working elephants are allowed to act naturally.
"We keep working elephants in the workforce for no more than six to eight hours a day. For the remaining hours we let them loose in the forest, they live like wild elephants, they can meet and mate with wild elephants, they have a full elephant life, good exercise and good food," she said.
Dr Mar says there are lessons from the treatment of these working elephants that could be taken on board by zoos.
"They have a very monotonous lifestyle, every day is the same for zoo elephants, they have to live in the same compound, with limited roaming, this makes them more stressed," she said.
"They need a huge home range, more systematic enrichment, bigger compounds, grooming areas, mud wallows, hills."
She says its important to allow them the freedom to behave naturally and has a straightforward message for zoos.
"If the zoo does not have space, its simple - don't take elephants."
The report's authors say transfers of elephants between zoos should be avoided, calves should be kept with their mothers for as long as possible to avoid stress-related death, and there should be regular screening for signs of obesity.
UK zoos
A separate study looking in detail at all the elephants in UK zoos has found significant health problems and evidence of widespread psychological distress.
Researchers from Bristol University studied 77 animals in 13 zoos and found that almost half of the elephants displayed abnormal behaviour.
This included repeatedly swaying the trunk, pacing backwards and forwards and retracing their steps over and over again.
"Some of the animals were born in the zoos and must have developed it there," said Chris Sherwin, from Bristol University's Department of Veterinary Science.
"It's possibly their way of coping with stress, but almost certainly indicates they're in an environment which is inappropriate for their needs. This is not behaviour you see in the wild."
The report says unless the animals' health and psychological suffering can be addressed, the ethics of keeping elephants in zoos must be questioned.
"In my opinion, given the correct housing and care it would be ethically acceptable to keep a few elephants in a few zoos, but certainly not the numbers we have in all the zoos we have now," Dr Sherwin added.
The Zoos Forum, the UK government's independent advisers on zoos, will consider the new findings and report to the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) within six months.
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David Field: It is not cruel to keep elephants in captivity
Friday, 12 December 2008
"Asian elephants in the wild are experiencing dramatic declines. The Zoological Society of London works with the Elephant Conservation Network in Thailand to address human-elephant conflict. Some of the techniques used are based on knowledge developed in zoos and the programme is funded by the society, from people who visit Whipsnade to see our elephants.
At Whipsnade Zoo, our elephants are weighed regularly and have a controlled diet – none are obese. They are part of a breeding programme that has resulted in about 40 calves being bred in Europe since 2005, with 80 per cent of them surviving.
In addition, society scientists have been working with Thai vet schools on health issues that face elephants in zoos and camps. For example, the knowledge our vets have gained on the herpes virus will translate directly to those animals affected in Thailand."
David A Field is the zoological director of the Zoological Society of London
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Critical Report on Health of Zoo Elephants Is Debated
An Asian elephant in a zoo in Europe.
Living in a zoo drastically shortens the lives of Asian and African elephants, possibly because of the effects of stress and obesity, researchers are reporting.
But their work provoked a sharp response from the Association of Zoos and Aquariums.
The researchers, who studied data from European zoos, are not recommending that zoos abandon elephants, said Georgia J. Mason, a leader of the work and an expert on animal behavior at the University of Guelph, in Ontario. But she said their findings suggested that imports of elephants should be limited to zoos that can identify and treat their problems, that transfers between zoos be minimized and that breeding efforts be limited to zoos with a record of success.
“Currently zoos are consumers rather than producers of elephants,” Dr. Mason said in an interview. “We feel that’s not really appropriate.”
Paul Boyle, the senior vice president for conservation and education at the Association of Zoos and Aquariums, based in Silver Spring, Md., called the work “terribly flawed” and said it reflected an antizoo agenda. He said he could not recall “the last time elephants were imported into the U.S. for a zoo. I cannot speak for other countries, but that is not true of the United States.”
And he said the researchers’ mortality comparisons did not take adequate account of wild elephants killed by people.
The researchers said it had long been known that zoo-raised elephants were at risk of becoming overweight or falling prey to behavioral disturbances, infanticide, foot trouble and diseases like herpes and tuberculosis. Activist groups, citing these issues, have urged that elephant conservation efforts be limited to maintaining elephant populations in the wild.
The new analysis, based on data on more than 4,500 elephants, most of them female, shows that “bringing elephants into zoos profoundly impairs their viability,” the researchers said. The researchers, from Guelph, the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and elsewhere, report their findings in Friday’s issue of the journal Science.
The new report draws on data from 1960 to 2005 on African and Asian elephants in European zoos, African elephants (Loxodonta africana) from Amboseli National Park in Kenya and Asian elephants (Elephas maximus) used in the Myanma Timber Enterprise, the agency of the government of Myanmar that deals with the lumber harvest and sale.
Excluding premature and still births, researchers calculated the median life span of zoo-born African elephants at 16.9 years, compared with 56.0 years for animals in the park. Survival of African elephants in zoos has improved in recent years, they said, but mortality rates for elephants in zoos are still substantially higher.
Median life span for Asian elephants in zoos was 18.9 years, the researchers said, compared with 41.7 years for elephants used in the timber trade. They further noted that for Asian elephants, infant mortality rates were far higher in zoos, a problem they said had “not significantly improved over time.”
But Dr. Boyle, an environmental biologist, said the idea that infant mortality had not improved “is just not right,” and he was critical of the researchers’ use of data going back to 1960. “If you were looking at the success of heart transplants and you reached back 48 years, you would be obviously biasing the success rate,” he said.
Knowledge of nutrition, behavior and other factors, he said, “has improved in the zoo community, just like every other profession.”
Dr. Mason said more research was needed to determine what factors contribute to survival of zoo elephants. For example, she said it remained to be determined if large enclosures were crucial or whether social factors, like transfers, were more important.
But Dr. Boyle said errors in the paper were so “flagrant” that he had complained to the editors of Science. “I wanted to let them know that they would draw a sharp response from professionals in this community,” he said.
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...just found the figures on the death of wild captured elephants in the Traffic report on the use of Burma as a smuggling route for elephant parts.
The official Burmese records for the 23 years leading up to 1996 had a death-in-training rate of 18.6%.
As I said far above I haven't seen the University of Guelph paper so I don't know if these deaths went into the Burmese life expectancy figure, could be why it is as low as it is - but if they are not in there they would change them signifcantly I feel.
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Elephant populations decline in the wild, but zoos may not be the answer
Sandy Bauers | The Philadelphia Inquirer
1/4/2009 -
PHILADELPHIA — In Chad, the ivory poachers have upgraded to automatic weapons.
Having bolstered the population at this "last stand for elephants" in central Africa, the Wildlife Conservation Society estimated recently that the numbers had dropped again, from 3,500 to 1,000.
Half a world away, San Diego Zoo workers are building a $44 million elephant exhibit. Its state-of-the-art amenities include a 2.5-acre savannah, a 9-foot-deep pool, and rubber flooring to prevent foot problems.
Clearly, the world's elephants are a study in contradictions.
In the wild, many populations are close to free fall. An estimated 1.4 million African elephants were alive in 1970, compared with about 400,000 today — a loss of about 26,000 a year.
In roughly the same time, Asian elephants dropped from 200,000 to 30,000.
"There's a serious question of how long we're going to have elephants on earth," says Paul Boyle, a conservation official at the Association of Zoos and Aquariums, the industry accrediting group.
In North American zoos, the charismatic animals help draw 175 million visitors a year.
But over the past decade, many have questioned whether zoos can meet the physical, psychological and emotional needs of these huge, highly intelligent and socially complex creatures.
A report printed in December in the journal Science reignited concerns.
The study compared Asian and African elephants in European zoos with those in Kenya's Amboseli National Park in Kenya and a Myanmar logging operation.
The astonishing conclusion: Despite all the veterinary care and absence of predators, zoo elephants lived only half as long as those in the wilder populations.
Philadelphia lawyer and elephant activist Marianne Bessey says the study "confirms that a life in captivity is devastating for elephants."
But howls of outrage rose from the zoo community.
"The article is a house of cards," says AZA's Boyle, who said the data were misinterpreted. He accused the authors of being anti-zoo.
The study looked at data back to the 1960s — another thing zoo officials objected to because care has advanced significantly since then.
Assessing more recent trends, lead author Georgia Mason, an animal welfare professor at the University of Guelph in Ontario, says lifespans among African zoo elephants are improving.
But for Asian elephants, "the results were pretty clear-cut, and much more worrying."
The median lifespan in zoos was 19 — meaning half die by then, half later. In logging camps in Myanmar, the median age was 42.
Elephants present special challenges for zoos. In the wild, they range over tens or hundreds of square kilometers. Herds of four to 12 related animals stay together virtually for life. In zoos, space is limited and obesity is common. Elephants live in smaller groups and are often transferred between zoos.
In 2001, the AZA instituted new standards for elephant exhibits.
The trend is toward larger exhibit spaces and bigger breeding herds, which complement the ultimate elephant enrichment activity — "babies, and caring for babies," says the Indianapolis Zoo's Deborah Olson, who also is executive director of the International Elephant Foundation.
Since the AZA's new standards, 61 zoos have improved their elephant exhibits or announced plans to do so.
But at least half a dozen zoos, including Philadelphia's, decided to close them.
In 2007, Philadelphia's Asian elephant, Dulary, was moved to a Tennessee sanctuary. Now 45, she's "in excellent health," says zoo chief operating officer Andrew Baker.
Philadelphia's African elephants were to be sent to a state-of-the-art conservation center near Pittsburgh.
But last summer, before it was completed, one of them died. At 53, Petal was the oldest African elephant in a North American zoo.
Now Bette, 25, and Kallie, 26, have begun the routine pre-move veterinary testing and monitoring. Depending on weather and transportation logistics, they could move in February.
Advocates say zoo populations constitute a kind of genetic ark for the future. Bette and Kallie are valuable because they were wild-caught in Zimbabwe and have not bred yet.
Bessey and others have long wanted the animals to move to the Performing Animal Welfare Sanctuary in California, to join a herd that roams over 120 acres.
Actually, "wild" is a fading notion. Many elephants are in national parks or other managed areas.
When using elephants for logging was outlawed in Thailand, hundreds were stranded. A sanctuary in the north, the Elephant Nature Park, is now a tourist attraction.
On both continents, poaching remains rampant.
From the Congo to Borneo, elephants are losing their forest habitats. In Sumatra, it's being converted to palm oil plantations and small farms.
Conflicts are inevitable.
"Poisoning and shooting and electrocutions of elephants is a big problem," said Sybille Klenzendorf, director of the species conservation program with the nonprofit World Wildlife Fund.
Likewise, elephant attacks on humans are increasing. A common scenario, Klenzendorf says, is when the matriarchs of a herd are killed. Without supervision, the teenage orphans "go nuts. They have no boundaries. ... Some become very aggressive."
Nevertheless, Klenzendorf says there's hope for elephants. "We can save the species if we take care of it."
After a crackdown on poaching in Botswana, South Africa and Namibia, elephant numbers in one national park nearly doubled in five years.
The AZA standards require that zoos with elephants fund conservation efforts. Many funnel money through the International Elephant Foundation, which has spent $1.4 million on projects since 1999.
Philadelphia has committed $100,000 over five years to a Borneo group that helps villagers protect their crops.
But the sums are dwarfed by what zoos spend to keep elephants in captivity.
In the past decade, Western zoos have spent or committed about $500 million to improve exhibits for just over 200 individuals, according to Mason.
"These sums are worrying because they're so staggering compared to what it would take to conserve these animals better" in the wild, she says in a Science podcast.
The AZA contends the dire situation in the wild — and a growing disconnect to nature in American culture — makes zoos all the more important.
"When you get a seventh-grader next to an elephant, there's that hay smell. It's huge. They look up and see these eyelashes that are 4 inches long," says the AZA's Boyle. "And they begin to ask questions."
But last month, in an emotional meeting packed with activists, the Los Angeles City Council withdrew its support for the zoo's $42 million new elephant exhibit.
It all boils down to one thing, Councilwoman Jan Perry said. "Whether you believe we should have animals of this magnitude in captivity."
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