Data from: Capture from the wild has long-term costs on reproductive success in Asian elephants

Capturing wild animals is common for conservation, economic, or research purposes. Understanding how capture itself affects lifetime fitness measures is often difficult because wild and captive populations live in very different environments and there is a need for long-term life-history data. Here we show how wild-capture influences reproduction in 2685 female Asian elephants (Elephas maximus) used in the timber industry in Myanmar. Wild-caught females demonstrated a consistent reduction in breeding success relative to captive-born females, with significantly lower lifetime reproduction probabilities, lower breeding probabilities at peak reproductive ages, and a later age of first reproduction. Furthermore, these negative effects lasted for over a decade, and there was a significant influence on the next generation: wild-caught females had calves with reduced survival to age 5. Our results suggest that wild-capture has long-term consequences for reproduction, which is important not only for elephants, but also for other species in captivity.

出于保护、经济或科研目的，野外捕获野生动物的行为较为常见。由于野生种群与圈养种群的生存环境差异显著，且需要长期的生活史数据，因此解析捕获行为本身如何影响动物的终身适合度指标往往颇具挑战。本研究针对缅甸木业中使用的2685头雌性亚洲象（Elephas maximus），揭示了野外捕获对其繁殖能力的影响。与圈养出生的雌性个体相比，野外捕获的雌性个体的繁殖成功率持续降低：其终身繁殖概率显著更低，繁殖盛期的繁殖概率也更低，且首次繁殖年龄更晚。此外，这些负面影响持续时长超过十年，且对子一代产生显著影响：野外捕获的雌性个体所产幼象在5岁前的存活率更低。本研究结果表明，野外捕获对繁殖能力存在长期影响，这一结论不仅适用于大象，也对其他圈养物种具有重要意义。