We and our partners use data for Personalised ads and content, ad and content measurement, audience insights and product development. This is a major reason why captive elephants often suffer fromserious and debilitating medical issues. If we as travellers did not demand and participate in these unethical activities, they would not be incentivised to create them. The remaining seven training techniques were categorized as neutral, because they did not have a clear valence. Here' s an example of an ethical elephant interaction in Thailand. This is why visitors can't ride . In exchange for giving the animals a home, accredited businesses were permitted to sell elephant-tourism services that were wildly profitable before the pandemic. However, little research has been conducted that either describes management practices or compares them across multiple zoos. Staff said they still feed the elephants, but do not know whether the food is paid for by the owners or donations. Adds Haas: They didnt want to let them take the elephants. Competing interests: LM is affiliated with the Chicago Zoological Society Brookfield Zoo (an AZA-accredited zoo), DS is affiliated with Oregon Zoo (an AZA-Accredited zoo), and JA is affiliated with Busch Gardens (an AZA-accredited zoo). Verbal and visual stimuli are patterned, and physical stimuli are shaded in grey tones. Hoy et al. The birth of three baby elephants over the past 15 years suggests BEC was not only meeting but exceeding its animal welfare requirements. The drive is long and very bumpy as the roads are more like muddy pathways meandering between the jungle and the palm tree plantations. While we did not collect data on the timing of this feeding, other studies have shown that nocturnal feedings are often offered at the beginning of the nighttime management period [69,70]. Every single day, all around the world, elephants are being exploited. Latest Posts: . We are not sure why this is done. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0152490, Editor: Elissa Z. Cameron, University of Tasmania, AUSTRALIA, Received: June 1, 2015; Accepted: March 15, 2016; Published: July 14, 2016. The first one starts in the morning at 9am and the second session starts in the afternoon at 2pm. For more information about PLOS Subject Areas, click In case you are wondering, a mahout is commonly known as elephant keeper. We do believe that being able to observe the magnificence of these majestic creatures up close, can help heighten our understanding of the fragility of our ecosystem and the importance of environmental and wildlife sustainability. Training Item scores were sorted according to whether an elephant complied with a request. No matter how gently the bullhook may be used with an animal in the presence of visitors, at some point it had to be established as a negative reinforcer in order to be effective. [When tourism stopped] they were no longer able to cover operational costs, especially the cost of feeding elephants. We currently care for elephants at locations in 4 . Is Tangkahan Elephant Sanctuary the safe haven it claims to be? In particular, our methods for assessing enrichment program quality and diversity and the utilization of training techniques should be broadly applicable. In the wild, food resources are temporally and spatially dispersed, and elephants use a range of foraging skills to locate and access them [5,6]. Or so we thought. Scores range in half integer values between 1 (never) and 5 (very frequently) and bars represent score ranges. Do Anti Fog Scuba and Snorkel Mask Honestly Prevent Fogging? The problems facing Asia's captive elephants. Heres why. Performed the experiments: CLM. Infactin the cities of the above four countries, eating elephant meat is considered to be prestigious. Our intention here, is to educate and pay it forward. 44% of people with a side gig think they'll always need one - CNBC Before we could interact with the elephants, they were herded to one side by their mahouts for cleaning. Categories included clumped [food placed in piles composed of multiple flakes of hay, browse items, or pellet], spread [food distributed through the exhibit], suspended [food suspended by rope, in a bag, open sided barrel, etc. Your adventure travel and expat guides! Taken together, these results indicate that many elephants are fed on temporally predictable schedules with high spatial predictability and only moderate feeding method variation. (2016) Elephant Management in North American Zoos: Environmental Enrichment, Feeding, Exercise, and Training. Although we only learnt after-the-fact, that bathing elephants is not ethically ideal. The low average Spread scores (mean = 0.2, on a scale from 0 to 1) and Feeding Diversity scores (mean = 1.3 on a scale ranging from 0 to 1.8) also indicate that food is typically provided in concentrated locations with a moderate amount of variety in food presentation. We used customized web-links to invite elephant managers to participate in the Management Survey. With tickets priced between $2 and $4 and only a handful of visitors per day, Tasta Wildlife Park is operating at a loss, but it continues to ensure all its animals are well fed. This means if you click on our links and buy something, we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. Oregon Zoo, Portland, Oregon, United States of America, Affiliation Walk Week and Exercise Week were categorical variables on a seven-point scale, ranging from less than one hour per week to more than 14 hours per week. Many of these measures are established through incredibly cruel training methods early in the elephants life. The poaching and killing of elephants for meat and as food obviously depend on the demand vs supply situation. The guide is also known as an ankus or bullhook, since there is a metal hook with a pointed tip at the distal end. This horrific chaining contributes to not only arthritis, but also musculoskeletal issues, as the chains cause deep, painful cuts on their legs. [25],Wiedenmayer [26]). Manage Settings https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0152490.t010, https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0152490.t011. Some say that the elephants must be on a poor diet if the mahouts have to help them. Animals | Free Full-Text | Scientific and Ethical Issues in - MDPI Food can cost up to $38 per day, said John Roberts, head of the Golden Triangle Asian Elephant Foundation and a key mover of Thailand's elephant-friendly tourism initiatives. Can't donate? Public Feeding Interactions as Enrichment for Three Zoo-Housed Elephants We took to food to feed some elephants and ended up feeding a blind elephant. Lastly, towards the end of the bathing and feeding session with the elephants, we were offered to ride the elephants. Our study demonstrates that elephant training (and likely the training of many other zoo species) is practiced along a continuum. Etiquette Listen to Mahouts Act Accordingly Don't Feed Elephants Preparing for Your Trip Visiting Ethical Sanctuaries Anantara Golden Triangle Elephant Camp and Resort Activities How to Get There Entry Wildlife Friends Foundation Thailand Activities How to Get There Entry Chiang Mai Elephant Jungle Sanctuary Department of Animal Science and Center for Animal Welfare, University of California Davis, Davis, California, United States of America, Its a beautiful sanctuary with an impactful mission. Wrote the paper: BJG CLM JAM LJM DJS. Traditionally, the role of a mahout passes down patrilineally along with ownership of a family's elephants. Management routines can vary considerably at the zoo and individual elephant level depending on staffing, management philosophy, and the needs of each elephant. Even "shoulder riding" - the traditional riding technique used by mahouts (traditional elephant drivers) - is now discouraged by animal welfare groups. Enrichment, feeding, and exercise programs were evaluated using diversity indices, with mean scores across zoos in the midrange for these measures. However, controversy has arisen with regard to one of the tools used for training elephants: the pole/stick, called a guide. Elephant Management in North American Zoos: Environmental - PLOS We used the Shannon-Weaver diversity index [57] to create the Enrichment Diversity score (as well as feeding and exercise. Categories included: stretching, calisthenics (e.g., climbing up and down blocks or lifting objects), A to Bs (directed walking from point A to point B, repeated as needed), intervals (directed walking at different rates), slow walking, strength building (e.g., lifting or pulling heavy objects), swimming, and water walking (directed walking in shallow water). Managers indicated the percentage of days in the year the elephants had access to 30 different types of enrichment or exhibit features. This park is primarily aimed at extracting as much money as possible from tourists, with little regard to the welfare of the animals, wrote a tourist on the site in 2011. But I am hoping that after the pandemic, tourists will have a wake-up call and not ride elephants or play with them in swimming pools anymore. Wed love to hear from you. Good intentions may not always lead to the best outcomes, but its a good start. This is also unethical and should not be done. Elephants may vary what they eat for dinner just like humans, study Tangkahan is a remote village nestled inside the Gunung Leuser National Park, in northern Sumatra on the west side of Indonesia. Online surveys were generated dynamically based on response-dependent branching architecture to avoid presenting redundant or inapplicable questions to respondents. You cant as a company say there are no more visitors so I am not taking care of the elephants anymore, Haas said. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0152490.t016. How to Have an Ethical Elephant Experience - Away From Origin Which, while on the surface these activities dont sound exploitative, arent in the best interest of the actual elephant. For both surveys, we asked respondents to report on their practices during the 2012 calendar year. The. Tree bark is a favorite food source for elephants. Analyzed the data: BJG LJM CLM. Here are my favorite ethicallocations to visit elephants: After months of searching for the right location to ethically interact with elephants and to find the right destination for Under30Experiences travelers coming to Thailand we found two great places. Is it permissible to consume elephant meat? - Darul Fiqh Continue with Recommended Cookies. Completed Training Techniques Surveys were submitted by 62 zoos for a total of 602 surveys on 227 elephants. In the afternoon we could feed the elephants again and take them to a bath by the . Conceived and designed the experiments: CLM BJG JA KC LJM DJS JAM KAM AB.