EVOLVING HEALTH INDICATORS TO ASSESS WELFARE STATUS OF CAPTIVE ASIAN ELEPHANTS
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Date
2021
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TANUVAS, CHENNAI
Abstract
Protecting and conserving the elephants had acquired the highest ever
priority now, due to their dwindling populations. For improving the welfare and
management of captive elephants, health and welfare indicators are needed. The
study on ‘Evolving health indicators to assess welfare status of captive elephants’
was undertaken to identify and evolve welfare indicators. Indicators were evolved
to assess the health and welfare of captive elephants through measurements of a
range of physical (body condition score, physical parameters, foot health and
disease profile), physiological (stress parameter-cortisol and cardiac biomarkers)
and behavioural indicators (housing, feeding and environmental factors). The study
population consisted of 46 female captive elephants, which included 24 temple
elephants and 22 privately maintained elephants. As a physical indicator. Body
Condition Score (BCS)of the elephants were scored in the range of 1 to 5 based on
evaluation often regions of the body with various criteria for each body regions. In
this 1 to 5 score index, BCS = 1-2 equated to “underweight/thin”, BCS = 3 assigned to “Ideal/normal” and BCS = 4-5 was assigned to “overweight/ obese”. Most of the
animals in this study attained BCS =3, followed by BCS = 4. Health profiling
included assessments of haematology, serum biochemistry, serum electrolytes, and
blood gas and acid base values. Elephants were screened for their heavy metal and
trace element status. No significant changes were observed in these values among
the elephants. The normal range of these parameters observed in this study indicated
the wellbeing and good health of these captive elephants. These values from the
larger sample size of 46 elephants could well serve as regional reference range for
the assessment of captive elephants.