Asian Elephant/African Elephant behavior

A

aw101

Well-Known Member
I am by no means an expert on the behavior of the 2 species of elephants in captivity, however I have noticed the following:

In captivity, African elephants tend to behave more naturally than their Asian counterparts. For example, at the San Diego Wild Animal Park the African elephants are often roaming around their enclosure, whereas the Asian elephants often stand there looking extremely bored or eating hay.

Also at Disney's Animal Kingdom which only exhibits African Elephants which often always display natural behavior in their enclosures.

Why is this the case? I have noticed that the vast majority of Asian elephants such as the ones in Taronga and Melbourne Zoo often just stand in one spot eating when not following a keeper around?
 
I think I agree with you actually, Africans always seem more active.
Not sure why though, but I would assume its like Sumatran orangs being a lot more active than Bornean's.
 
I don`t agree with your conclusion - you need to take the age of the animals and the social situation into account. The asian elephants in San Diego WAP are old animals who are probably very bored because the social situation isn`t very good - no calves, no younger elephants. the africans, in contrary, are all very young and there are 4 (?) calves of different ages and both gender in the group, which guarantees a lot of action/ play behavoir and motivates the adukts to move more.
 
But I found that the herd of Africans at Howletts zoo is a lot more active then the herd of Asians at Whipsnade, and they both have groups with varying ages etc.
 
Correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't the African elephants at the SD WAP wild caught? Therefore they should be experiencing wild behaviour because it was what they were raised on...
 
Asian elephants are more docile and can be "socialised" to humans so that they can be used for logging etc and why they can be used for riding purposes. African elephants can be very single minded and its rare though not impossible for them to be socialised enough to humans so that they can be ridden. At a guess the African elephant probably has had to travel greater distances to find food and water than the Asian elephant and this has lead to adaptations in behaviour over time
 
whereas the Asian elephants often stand there looking extremely bored or eating hay.

Resting and eating are two very natural actions
 
In german zoos, plenty of african elephants are trained like asians, incl. keepers riding on them. And there are plenty of african elephants in circusses, too. I don`t think it`s actually true that africans are more difficult to train and handle then asians (but all elephants are wild animals and should be kept in protected contact, IMHO!).
 
I know someone who worked in a circus, and he said that Africans are a lot harder to train than Asians.
 
I know, a lot of people SAY that, but not everything people say is true. Old prejudices die hard.

If you visit Emmen or Cologne zoo, you`ll see herds of asian eles who are very active and move all the time. Lots of calves = lots of action, regardless the species.
 
One thing about elephant behavior that many animal-activists that I find to be false is the assumption that an elephant swaying is a bored, depressed elephant. I can think of two other circumstances where elephants sway 1) They are anticipating an activity or a feeding that normally happens around that time, and 2) believe or not elephants also sway because they like the feeling/sensation of balancing their weight around. I learned that today from someone who previously worked with elephants at both Have Trunk Will Travel and the Santa Barbara Zoo, so the assumption that elephants sway because they are depressed is completely color-coated. Also, elephants have been observed swaying in the wild too.
 
A very interesting topic. I really thinks it depends on personality and surroundings. At the Columbus Zoo we have four Asians and three Africans. Our five year old Asian male is extremely active probably because of his youth. Our twenty year old female never stops walking, inside or out. Our thirty six year old likes to pick a spot and park it inside or out and our thirty eight year old male likes to park it inside but is very active outside. Currently we are hosting Clevelands three African females. All of them are not very active - which is contradictory with what their keepers told me about how they behaved in Cleveland. They said they very active. So I think the move really made them a little less active. I also think age has to be a factor.
 
BlackRhino said:
2) believe or not elephants also sway because they like the feeling/sensation of balancing their weight around. I learned that today from someone who previously worked with elephants at both Have Trunk Will Travel and the Santa Barbara Zoo, so the assumption that elephants sway because they are depressed is completely color-coated. Also, elephants have been observed swaying in the wild too.
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Regarding point 2, I read somewhere (can't remember where exactly though) that the elephants do sway due to boredom, but the swaying releases endorphins to create the sensation, therefore a natural attempt to relieve the boredom...

I'm not sure of the validity of this though.
 
CZJimmy said:
Regarding point 2, I read somewhere (can't remember where exactly though) that the movement (or rocking) of the head releases endorphins to counteract boredom (creating a "sensation" by swaying).

I'm not sure of the validity of this though.
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They do it in the wild too...
 
ColumbusZoo001 said:
A very interesting topic. I really thinks it depends on personality and surroundings. At the Columbus Zoo we have four Asians and three Africans. Our five year old Asian male is extremely active probably because of his youth. Our twenty year old female never stops walking, inside or out. Our thirty six year old likes to pick a spot and park it inside or out and our thirty eight year old male likes to park it inside but is very active outside. Currently we are hosting Clevelands three African females. All of them are not very active - which is contradictory with what their keepers told me about how they behaved in Cleveland. They said they very active. So I think the move really made them a little less active. I also think age has to be a factor.
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I have observed Cleveland's ele girls countless amounts of hours. Over the summer I watched them for about 1-2 hours per week, and I can tell you that Martika and Moshi are both very active elephants while Jo is not. Jo hates being outside and would wait by the door for hours to go in. Once inside the keepers had a hard time getting her to go back out, so they could clean the indoor stalls. Moshi loves the outdoors and she would always be the last one to come inside. Even in severe thunderstorms she will silently forage outside. Martika, My favorite of the trio, has the most personality and she loves to play with the keepers and trumpet. During thunderstorms she freaks out roaring, trumpeting, running around, and rearing on her hind legs, and she is without a doubt the most active. I have never seen her do any swaying by the door as she keeps really busy. All of Cleveland's elephants are probably appreciating the large space they have in Columbus, as their Cleveland home was quite small, a little less than 0.5 acre, and the indoor stalls were some of the tiniest I have ever seen. I don't even think they were over 1,000 square feet altogether!
 
I think it really depends on nurture rather than nature.
Although yes the elephant I regularly see at Melbourne are very active at all, even when I went to the zoo on hot day around 35 degress celsius hoping to see the elephants frolic in the water, they didn't really even touch the pool's surface. Stayed around the exhibit for 4 hours still nothing tried again several times still no luck. Of course there is a possibilty that I just happened to miss out on each occassion.

Maybe perhaps they are a less playful? Though three of them are quite young. Not Sure how to explain it in general. Though the one time I went to Taronga zoo to view the elephants there was a large amount of activity.
Does anyone know a case with asians in Melbourne not wanting to play in the water that often? I know probably it's just me but I'd just like to know.

Singapore's elephants when I saw them ( asian) were quite active. But maybe perhaps the regular enrichment and weather may have contributed.

Same with Taiping's elephants in Malaysia when I saw them few years ago ( I think I was 6 about them so my memory might be hazy)
The herd had an adult bull in the same yard with a younger around 10-15 year old elephants at the time inculding an adolescent bull in the yard. The adult bull named Ajang something I think passed away in 2003. But the yard just had dust an open veranda like barn. a few tires and a very, very small pool in the middle. There was hepas of activity though 3 elephants tried to squeezed into the pool at the same time and the Setia the young bull ran around trying to squirt others.
Few years on now they have 3 calves at the moment I think. All sired by setia. Each of the females has given birth to at least one. So perhaps they are even more active now. ?

I have never seen a living African elephant yet, I hope to asap but I do have the Book "Great Tuskers of Africa" to view.
 
ashley-h said:
But I found that the herd of Africans at Howletts zoo is a lot more active then the herd of Asians at Whipsnade, and they both have groups with varying ages etc.
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Examine those two groups a bit more closely though. The African elephant herd at Howletts is usually about a dozen animals together, including the bull, cows with several calves and younger animals in the group. The Asian Elephants at Whipsnade are split into much smaller 'pairs' of females most of the time, with only one or two calves in each subgroup, and the bull is nearly always alone. So they are bound to be less active. Chester's larger Asian group are more comparable with Howletts Africans, and I would say they are similarly active.
 
That is true I guess, bad example.

Yassa said:
I know, a lot of people SAY that, but not everything people say is true. Old prejudices die hard.
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Well he trained elephants all his life, I don't think he'd lie about it. He just says they're harder to train as they're more stubborn.
And with head weaving, I agree with black rhino as I've observed it and noticed that too. I've only seen the Asian female in Paignton swaying whilst standing by the gate waiting to be fed. The same goes with Polar bears, as they've been observed head weaving in the wild too.
 
Please give me the details about the observations that wild elephants do sway, my understanding is that is propaganda from zoo and circus people justifying the patological behavoir of their elephants. The researchers from the Amboseli elephant project, having observerd a big population of more then 1500 elephants since the mid-70`th say they have NEVER seen anything that resembles swaying/waving in their elephants.

The theory of Fred Kurt is that swaying is the result of psychological trauma in the childhood (seperation from bonded family members through chaining, which results in tries to break the chains which develops into the typical swaying/waving we know). Once this sort of behavoir is "engraved" into an elephant`s brain, they use it to comfort themselves whenever they are stressed, bored or frightened. Waiting for food should fell into the "boredom". While it`s impossible to get an elephant to stop swaying completetly, it`s possible to greatly reduce it through enrichment and creating a positive environment. Just when you`re having a "herd" of just 2 females without any calves and bulls, it`s simply impossible to keep them stimulated all the time...
 
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