Supporting Data for “The Asian elephant (Elephas maximus) in a human world: Factors that shape captive elephant-handler relationships”

The overarching theme of this thesis is to understand how elephant behavior is shaped by conditions in a human environment, and by their interactions with humans. Focusing on aspects of handler-elephant relationships, handler and elephant personality, elephant cognition and affect, I attempt to understand how these factors influence elephant behavior within a human environment. The findings of this research will directly contribute towards a deeper understanding of human-elephant interactions within captive environments and also handler and elephant welfare. It could also offer possible insight into how wild elephant behavior is influenced by these factors in human affected environments.Chapter 2 focuses on how elephant-handler relationships are affected by human characteristics such as elephant-handling experience, years of working with their current animals; environmental characteristics such as temperature; and proximity characteristics such as distance from handler during tasks. Through an experimental approach I attempt to understand the influence of these factors on the response of the elephants towards their handlers in an ‘animal calling task’.Chapter 3 centers around how handler and elephant personalities influence the elephant-handler relationship. Using three different questionnaires of elephant personality, handler personality and elephant-handler relationship scale, I get a handler’s perspective on how these factors influence the relationship they share with their animal.Chapter 4 focuses on the affective state of the animal. For this chapter I used the method of Qualitative Behavior Assessments (QBA) which focuses on observed behavior, movement and body postures of the animal to determine affective states. The QBA was assessed through video recordings of individual elephants over a long-term duration. We were interested in the human perspective of the affective states of elephants.Chapter 5 again focuses on determining affective states in elephants, through a cognitive approach. In this chapter I used Cognitive Bias Tests (CBT) which highlights how affective states can influence decision-making in elephants. Using an experimental approach we first exposed the elephants to cues associated with positive and negative affective states and then introduced ambiguous cues which lay between them. The elephants’ responses were recorded to understand how decision-making is affected by previous experiences with valence (attractiveness or aversion).

本论文的核心主题在于探究大象行为如何受到人类环境条件及其与人类互动的影响。聚焦于驯象师与大象关系的各个方面、驯象师与大象的性格特征、大象的认知与情感，本研究旨在揭示这些因素如何影响大象在人类环境中的行为表现。本研究的结果将直接促进对圈养环境中人类与大象互动以及驯象师与大象福利的深入理解，并可能为探究在人类影响的环境中，这些因素如何影响野生大象行为提供可能的见解。第二章着重探讨人类特征，如驯象经验、与当前动物共事年限；环境特征，如温度；以及接近特征，如任务中与大象驯象师之间的距离，如何影响大象与驯象师之间的关系。通过实验方法，本研究旨在理解这些因素如何影响大象在‘动物召唤任务’中对驯象师的反应。第三章围绕驯象师与大象性格如何影响驯象师与大象之间的关系展开。利用三种不同的大象性格、驯象师性格和大象驯象师关系量表问卷，本研究从驯象师的视角了解这些因素如何影响他们与动物共享的关系。第四章聚焦于动物的情感状态。本章采用了定性行为评估（QBA）的方法，该方法关注动物的观察行为、运动和身体姿态，以确定情感状态。通过长期对个别大象的视频录像进行QBA评估，我们关注的是人类对大象情感状态的看法。第五章再次聚焦于通过认知方法确定大象的情感状态。本章采用了认知偏差测试（CBT），该方法强调了情感状态如何影响大象的决策制定。通过实验方法，我们首先让大象接触与积极和消极情感状态相关的线索，然后引入介于两者之间的模糊线索。记录大象的反应，以理解决策如何受到先前与情感价值（吸引力或厌恶）相关的经验的影响。