Behavioural Impact Of Enclosure Relocation On Asiatic Elephants (Elephas Maximus) In Artis Royal Zoo, Amsterdam.

It can have negative consequences when the standards of well-being of animal are not met in a captive environment. The main priority of this study was to determine whether a more enriched enclosure could reduce stereotypic behaviour and increase natural behaviours in captive Asiatic elephants, and thus increase well-being. In order to answer this question the Asiatic elephants in Artis Royal Zoo were studied. Artis Royal Zoo had built a new enclosure to improve the well-being of their elephants. Activity budgets of the three elephants of both the new and old enclosure were studied. Observation was done over a period of three months ,between April 2017 and July 2017 for a total of 26 days. Only Thong-Thai, mother of Yindee and Sanuk, exhibited stereotypic behaviour. There was a significant difference found between the stereotypic behaviour averages per enclosure when consume/forage behaviour and enclosures were included in the model. Both Thong-Thai and Yindee reduced their consume/foraging behaviour when relocated. All three elephants increased in walking behaviour when relocated with a maximum difference exhibited by Yindee. Only Yindee increased in enrichment use behaviour. Also, like Rees (2009), a negative correlation was found between stereotypic behaviour and consume/foraging behaviour in both enclosures. The behavioural data can only give an indication of improved well-being and we may not have seen extreme positive signs yet but we can say that the new enclosure provides a more abundant set of options to the elephants. These extra options remove mental and physical barriers and stimulate the animal to exhibit natural behaviour which can only be a good thing (McPhee & Carlstead, 2010).圈养环境中若未达到动物福利（animal well-being）标准，将引发负面后果。本研究的核心目标为验证：丰容型圈舍（enriched enclosure）是否能够减少圈养亚洲象（Asiatic elephants）的刻板行为（stereotypic behaviour），提升其自然行为的展现频次，进而改善动物福利水平。为此，研究对象为阿蒂斯皇家动物园（Artis Royal Zoo）内的三头亚洲象，该动物园为优化大象福利新建了一处丰容圈舍。本研究对新旧两种圈舍中三头亚洲象的行为时间分配（activity budget）开展了分析。观察周期为2017年4月至7月，共计3个月，累计完成26天的观察工作。仅名为通泰（Thong-Thai）的个体——即因迪（Yindee）与萨努克（Sanuk）的母亲——表现出刻板行为。当将取食/觅食行为与圈舍类型纳入统计模型后，不同圈舍间的刻板行为平均值存在显著差异。通泰与因迪在迁至新圈舍后，其取食/觅食行为时长均有所减少。三头亚洲象在迁至新圈舍后，行走行为时长均有所提升，其中因迪的行为变化幅度最大。仅因迪的丰容设施使用行为（enrichment use behaviour）时长有所增加。此外，与Rees（2009）的研究结论一致，两种圈舍环境下的刻板行为与取食/觅食行为均呈显著负相关。本次行为数据仅能反映动物福利水平的改善趋势，目前尚未观测到极端正向的行为表现，但可以确认新圈舍为亚洲象提供了更为丰富的行为选择空间。这些额外的行为选择消除了心理与生理层面的限制，能够激发亚洲象展现自然行为，这一结果无疑是积极的（McPhee & Carlstead, 2010）。