Asian elephant calf physiology and mahout perspectives during taming in Myanmar

A quarter of Asian elephants are captive, with greater than 90% of these tamed and cared for by handlers (mahouts) in Asia. Although taming is a much-discussed welfare issue, no studies to our knowledge have empirically assessed its impact on calves, and dialogue surrounding taming often lacks perspectives of those involved. Here, we interviewed mahouts involved in taming and monitored five physiological measures (faecal glucocorticoid metabolites (FGMs), serum cortisol, glucose, creatine kinase (CK) and heterophil:lymphocyte (H:L)) over the first 10 days of taming and following six months in 41 calves undergoing taming and 16 control individuals. These measures assess the duration and intensity of stress during taming. Interviews suggested mahouts had major concerns for their safety when discussing changing taming practices, an important consideration for future management. Calf physiological measures were elevated by 50–70% (FGMs/cortisol/glucose), 135% (H:L) and greater than 500% (CK) over the first few days of taming, indicative of elevated stress, not seen to the same extent in control adults. Some measures stabilized sooner (glucose/cortisol/CK/FGM: 7–10 days) than others (H:L: one–two months), indicating mostly acute stress. Our findings inform the welfare of approximately 15 000 captive elephants around the world. Future studies should compare taming in different populations and consider calf and mahout welfare

Individual variation in habitat selection behavior of Asian elephants in a human-wildland interface

Habitat loss and fragmentation due to accelerated agriculture expansion is a major threat to existing wildlife populations across Asia. The human-wildlife interface mosaic across Asia is varied in terms of juxtaposition and structure, which can strongly influence biodiversity value and impacts on wildlife species. Here we analyzed habitat selection behavior of Asian elephant (Elephas maximus) across three study sites with different agriculture use patterns in Myanmar, a country recognized as a global biodiversity hotspot, including but not limited to, commercial palm oil and sugarcane plantations, and subsistence agriculture. These different agriculture use landscape capture landscape mosaic structure found across Asia. Given elephants exhibit heterogeneous spatial behavior, we fitted individual step selection and resource selection models to gain insight into the diversity of strategies employed at the local (step) and home range (third-order) scale. We used variance partitioning analysis to quantify the explanatory contribution of individual and study sites across both scales. We found that the variation in the resource selection behavior was mainly due to individual differences, and the configuration of agriculture present in an individual’s range was the most influential to its selection behavior. Enhancing understanding of how the level of fragmentation on the landscape relates to agricultural use can serve to help focus conservation efforts. Continued accelerated agriculture expansion is increasing the rate of contact between elephants and humans and, thereby escalating negative human-elephant interactions, often resulting in human and elephant deaths. Gaining a deeper understanding of habitat selection behavior by elephants across the changing landscapes of Asia can help inform management decisions and conservation actions