9,344 research outputs found

    Only Aggressive Elephants are Fast Elephants

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    Yellow elephants are slow. A major reason is that they consume their inputs entirely before responding to an elephant rider's orders. Some clever riders have trained their yellow elephants to only consume parts of the inputs before responding. However, the teaching time to make an elephant do that is high. So high that the teaching lessons often do not pay off. We take a different approach. We make elephants aggressive; only this will make them very fast. We propose HAIL (Hadoop Aggressive Indexing Library), an enhancement of HDFS and Hadoop MapReduce that dramatically improves runtimes of several classes of MapReduce jobs. HAIL changes the upload pipeline of HDFS in order to create different clustered indexes on each data block replica. An interesting feature of HAIL is that we typically create a win-win situation: we improve both data upload to HDFS and the runtime of the actual Hadoop MapReduce job. In terms of data upload, HAIL improves over HDFS by up to 60% with the default replication factor of three. In terms of query execution, we demonstrate that HAIL runs up to 68x faster than Hadoop. In our experiments, we use six clusters including physical and EC2 clusters of up to 100 nodes. A series of scalability experiments also demonstrates the superiority of HAIL.Comment: VLDB201

    The Social Relationships of Captive African Elephant (Loxodonta africana) Juveniles

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    In situ female African bush elephants (Loxodonta africana) live in a fission- fusion society comprised of “core groups” in which adult females associate with their dependent offspring (Archie, Moss, & Alberts, 2006). Most of the animals in a core group are related (Archie et al., 2006), but kinship is not the only contributor to elephant sociality.Pre-reproductive females (allomothers) often assist in the care of calves and juveniles (Lee, 1987). The concept of inclusive fitness (Riedman, 1982) is the favored hypothesis for the evolution of allomothering. Zoological settings, with varied social groupings, provide the perfect opportunity to test this hypothesis (Schulte, 2000). During the winter of 2017-2018, four female elephants at the Indianapolis Zoo were grouped together temporarily (one hour per day) and given access to an outside yard. The group included an adolescent (Zahara), her juvenile sister (Nyah), another female juvenile (Kalina) and the (unrelated) dominant elephant at the facility (Sophi). Video recordings of the animals moving freely in the yard were examined to document proximity, changes in proximity, and behavioral observations. Zahara spent more time close to the calves than did Sophi. Zahara and each of the juveniles made and broke contact equally often; however, the juveniles were primarily responsible for maintaining proximity to Sophi. Zahara, surprisingly, associated more with Kalina than with Nyah. Finally, Zahara displayed far more agonistic behaviors towards Kalina than towards Nyah. These results suggest that Zahara was an allomother to both juveniles, favoring Nyah over Zahara, but also interacted with Kalina as a peer

    A Survey of the Management and Development of Captive African Elephant (\u3cem\u3eLoxodonta africana\u3c/em\u3e) Calves: Birth to Three Months of Age

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    We used four surveys to collect information about the birth, physical growth, and behavioral development of 12 African elephant calves born in captivity. The management of the birth process and neonatal care involved a variety of standard procedures. All of the calves were born at night, between 7PM and 7AM. The calves showed a systematic progression in behavioral and physical development, attaining developmental milestones at least a quickly as calves in situ. This study emphasized birth-related events, changes in the ways that calves used their trunks, first instances of behaviors, and interactions of the calves with other, usually adult, elephants. Several behaviors, such as the dam covering her calf with hay and the calf sucking its own trunk, were common in the captive situation and have been observed in situ. Overall, the behaviors of the calves resembled those observed for African elephant calves in situ. These data should help in the management of African elephants under human care by providing systematic reference values for the birth and development of elephant calves

    Effects of social disruption in elephants persist decades after culling.

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    BACKGROUND Multi-level fission-fusion societies, characteristic of a number of large brained mammal species including some primates, cetaceans and elephants, are among the most complex and cognitively demanding animal social systems. Many free-ranging populations of these highly social mammals already face severe human disturbance, which is set to accelerate with projected anthropogenic environmental change. Despite this, our understanding of how such disruption affects core aspects of social functioning is still very limited. RESULTS We now use novel playback experiments to assess decision-making abilities integral to operating successfully within complex societies, and provide the first systematic evidence that fundamental social skills may be significantly impaired by anthropogenic disruption. African elephants (Loxodonta africana) that had experienced separation from family members and translocation during culling operations decades previously performed poorly on systematic tests of their social knowledge, failing to distinguish between callers on the basis of social familiarity. Moreover, elephants from the disrupted population showed no evidence of discriminating between callers when age-related cues simulated individuals on an increasing scale of social dominance, in sharp contrast to the undisturbed population where this core social ability was well developed. CONCLUSIONS Key decision-making abilities that are fundamental to living in complex societies could be significantly altered in the long-term through exposure to severely disruptive events (e.g. culling and translocation). There is an assumption that wildlife responds to increasing pressure from human societies only in terms of demography, however our study demonstrates that the effects may be considerably more pervasive. These findings highlight the potential long-term negative consequences of acute social disruption in cognitively advanced species that live in close-knit kin-based societies, and alter our perspective on the health and functioning of populations that have been subjected to anthropogenic disturbance

    The relationship of life stage to daily social patterns of captive African elephants (Loxodonta africana) and the correlation of handler perceptions of elephant personality to demonstrated social behaviors

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    Elephants typically have very strong social bonds, and social interactions can include affiliative, agonistic, or ambiguous behaviors. The social interactions and dominance hierarchy between individuals of a herd depend upon many factors, including maternal lineage, age, and sex. This study was designed to determine how social behaviors among a herd of captive African elephants varied throughout the day and to establish if the frequency of social interactions and age class were correlated. The study also aimed to determine if handler perceptions of elephant personality were an accurate predictor of the type and frequency of social behaviors observed, in addition to the factors stated above. The research was performed at the African Elephant Research Unit at Knysna Elephant Park (KEP) in South Africa. The herd included 7 elephants in 3 age groups: juvenile (0-10 years), young adult (11-20 years), and adult (20+ years). Continuous, all-occurrence sampling of pre-determined affiliative, agonistic, and ambiguous social behaviors was performed for a total of 90.4 hours within a seven-week period. Results indicated that there was a statistically higher rate of affiliative, agonistic, and total social behaviors initiated during mid-morning than during mid-afternoon, but no statistical difference in ambiguous social behaviors initiated throughout the day. Additionally, elephant handlers were individually surveyed regarding perceptions of each elephant’s personality traits, including qualities of dominance, activity level, boldness, confidence, curiosity, sociability, and aggressiveness. This characterization was compared to the previously recorded elephant social behaviors, and results indicated that there was a strong positive correlation between observed agonistic rate of social behavior and rated activity levels. Results are intended to influence the management of captive elephants at KEP and elsewhere

    Behavioural changes in African elephants in response to wildlife tourism

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    Eco-tourism and human-wildlife interaction can lead to increases in stress, vigilance and aggression in many species, however, studies investigating wildlife viewing are scarce. We present the first study investigating the impact of wildlife tourism on African elephant, Loxodonta africana, behaviour. Over 15 months, we studied the effect of monthly tourist pressure (tourist numbers) on the occurrence of stress-related, vigilance and conspecific-directed aggressive behaviour in 27 individually identified elephants and the effect of up to 3 vehicles on the direction of travel of non-identified herds using five-minute continuous focal observations. We analysed the effect of tourist pressure and vehicle presence using generalised linear mixed models, including habitat type, herd type and size, and season, as well as sex and age for behaviour models, as additional factors. We found no effect of factors on stress-related behaviour, but elephants were more likely to perform vigilance behaviours at waterholes compared to other habitat types. As tourist pressure increased, conspecific-directed aggression in elephants increased and male elephants were more likely to perform conspecific directed aggression compared to female elephants. . Further, we found that elephant herds became increasingly likely to move away with increasing numbers of vehicles present. Results suggest that reserves should monitor elephant behaviour to identify when tourist pressure has potential effects on elephant welfare and train guides to monitor behaviour and adjust minimum distances flexibly to ensure high welfare standards and tourist safety. This study further contributes to a small but growing body of literature on non-consumptive wildlife tourism impacts on wild animals

    The impact of wildlife tourism on African elephants, Loxodonta africana, in South Africa

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    Wildlife tourism may aid in the protection of species and habitat and contributes to countries’ economies. However, wildlife tourism has also been identified as a potential stressor in many species, affecting individuals’ survival, reproduction, welfare, and behaviour. We can investigate whether something elicits a stress response in an individual by studying its behaviour, movement, and faecal glucocorticoid concentrations. African elephants, Loxodonta africana, are mega-herbivores threatened by poaching and habitat loss. Simultaneously, they are iconic animals which tourists are keen to observe in their natural habitat. Nevertheless, studies assessing wildlife tourism impacts on African elephants are scarce. I studied a population of approximately 1200 free-ranging elephants in Madikwe Game Reserve, South Africa, over a period of 15 months from April 2016 to June 2017. I investigated whether wildlife tourism affected elephants’ faecal glucocorticoid metabolite (fGCM) concentrations, vigilance or aggressive behaviour, or the direction of herd movement in relation to tourist vehicles present. I further investigated whether wildlife tourism impacted on elephant space use, in the form of home range size and journey length. Wildlife tourism was either defined as tourist pressure (the total number of tourists in Madikwe per month), or as immediate tourist presence (in form of number of game drive vehicles present during an observation). I used a mixed model approach, controlling for age, sex, habitat and herd type (such as lone males, bull, cow-calf or mixed groups), as well as a proxy of plant productivity, season, temperature, and time of day throughout those analyses. High tourist pressure was significantly related to increased fGCM concentrations. Elephants were more likely to display conspecific-directed aggression during times of high tourist pressure. During game drive vehicle presence, the likelihood of elephant herds moving away from vehicles increased with increasing numbers of vehicles present. Elephants’ home range size and journey length were not affected by wildlife tourism. The results presented in this thesis suggest that wildlife tourism is a stressor for free-ranging elephants in fenced reserves. I present management recommendations to improve elephant welfare and increase tourist safety: to introduce a maximum speed of approach and minimum distance between vehicles and elephants, as well as establishment of an area with limited tourist activity

    M.S. Environmental Biology Capstone Project

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    Chapter 1: Coexistence begins with respect: human impacts on brown bears (Ursus arctos) Chapter 2: Grizzly bear foraging patterns in relation to human disturbances in Sweden Chapter 3: Activity budgets and social relationships of bull Asian elephants (Elephas maximus) at Denver Zoo Chapter 4: Loris trade not so slow: conservation and welfare of slow lorise

    Communication

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    Section on "Communication" from Encyclopedia of Applied Animal Behaviour and Welfar

    Personality Assessment in African Elephants (\u3ci\u3eLoxodonta africana\u3c/i\u3e)

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    The following study assessed personality in twelve African elephants using both observational behavior coding and standardized trait rating methods, thus demonstrating consistent individual differences across time and contexts. During the summer of 2010 and 2011, over 640 hours of behavioral data were collected onsite at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park in Escondido, CA. Four coding-based personality traits were determined after analysis: PLAYFUL, CURIOUS, TOLERANT, and, AGGRESSIVE. This data was then compared to survey ratings completed by the animal keeper staff during both summers. Four rating-based personality traits resulted from this analysis: PLAYFUL, CURIOUS, TIMID, and, AGGRESSIVE. All eight composite personality traits were highly correlated (p \u3c 0.01) from 2010 to 2011 for each individual elephant. In addition, the rated and coded traits were highly correlated (p \u3c 0.05) among the individuals, demonstrating construct validity. Previous studies on personality in both humans and animals have found that individual differences in temperament are significantly related to immunity strength, breeding status, and stress response. This suggests that personality assessment in any species can be used to identify individuals that are more sensitive to environmental and social sources of stress, may help in determining inter-individual compatibility, and can shed light on personality-specific enrichment
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