Abstract:
Keeping elephants in captivity is a centuries-old practice in many countries including Sri Lanka.
Although captive management of elephants is challenging, there are few studies that focus on
species-specific indicators that can be used to improve the wellbeing of captive individuals.
Behavioral observation is one indicator that can be used as a tool to explore the condition of
captive animals. In this study, the diurnal behavior of captive and free ranging elephants,
Elephas maximus was assessed. Observations were recorded for six free ranging elephants at
Udawalawe National Park and three captive elephants (two at the National Zoological Garden,
Dehiwala and one at Pallebedda). Instantaneous scan sampling at five minute intervals were
carried out and several behaviors were recorded. Observations were recorded from 0900h to
1700h for a total of 120 hours. We tested whether feeding, resting, locomotion and comfort
behaviors were different between captive and wild elephants using ANOVA (using arcsine
transformed data of proportions of counts for each behavior type). Wild elephants spent
significantly more time feeding (p=0.003) and resting (p=0.03) than captive elephants, while
there was a similar trend in comfort behavior (p=0.05). There was no difference between wild
and captive elephants in the time spent resting (p=0.15). Stereotypic behavior was only observed
in captive elephants (50% of observed time). These results emphasize the contrasting behavior of
the two groups and highlight the importance of behavioral studies in captive elephant
management. Successful management programs should focus on changing behavioral patterns of
captive elephants to more closely resemble those of free-ranging elephants.
