HOW FAR DO MELBOURNE ZOO'S ELEPHANTS TRAVEL A DAY?

Animal welfare groups sometime oppose zoos keeping large animals such as Asian Elephants (Elephas maximus), as there is a perception that these animals do not have enough space for appropriate exercise and freedom in captivity.

Using CCTV cameras, Ms Zoe Rowell and Dr Ian Bland from the University of Melbourne, together with Ms Jan Steele (Melbourne Zoo's Curator of Exotic Animals), tracked the movements of Melbourne Zoo's five Asian Elephants.

AIM

This study aimed to calculate the baseline activity levels of each Asian Elephant at Melbourne Zoo, and so provide possible avenues for updating, improving and quantifying management and welfare protocols for the Zoo's elephants.

METHODS

The researchers overlaid grids on the indoor and outdoor elephant enclosures, and then used video monitoring to calculate where the elephants moved and to record their behaviours. They monitored elephant behaviour for 18 hours a day between July and September 2008.

RESULTS

The researchers found that Melbourne Zoo's captive elephants travel as far (or further) than elephants living in natural non-extreme environments (6.21 - 15.00 km/day vs. 5 - 10 km/day). The Zoo's elephants also travel further than has previously been reported for captive African Elephants.

The elephants at Melbourne Zoo use a large proportion of the space in the outdoor Trail of the Elephants paddocks. As you would expect for wild elephants, their main activities are walking, standing and feeding/foraging. They generally show very few stereotypic behaviours (such as repeatedly walking the same path or swaying from side-to-side).

CONCLUSIONS

Melbourne Zoo's captive Asian Elephants travel daily distances comparable to elephants living in natural environments. There is a need for further research to confirm that, where appropriate, other aspects of captive elephant welfare are also comparable to nature.

The methods used in this study could potentially be used worldwide as a cost-effective and relatively accurate way of assessing locomotion, activity budgets and spatial utilisation in captive animals, and so further improve the welfare and management of captive species.

FOR MORE INFORMATION

- on Melbourne Zoo's five Asian Elephants - click here.

- on Asian Elephants and the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species - click here.

Training sessions such as a 'tail-up' provide exercise and mental stimulation to Melbourne Zoo's Asian Elephants.

Photo: Z. Rowell