Stereotypic behavior is an important indicator of compromised welfare. Zoo elephants are documented to perform stereotypic behavior, but the factors that contribute to performance have not been systematically assessed. We collected behavioral data on 89 elephants 47 African [ Loxodonta africana ], 42 Asian [ Elephas maximus ] at 39 North American zoos during the summer and winter.
Elephants were videoed for a median of 12 daytime hours per season. A subset of 32 elephants 19 African, 13 Asian was also observed live for a median of Percentages of visible behavior scans were calculated from five minute instantaneous samples. Stereotypic behavior was the second most commonly performed behavior after feeding , making up Negative binomial regression models fitted with generalized estimating equations were used to determine which social, housing, management, life history, and demographic variables were associated with daytime and nighttime stereotypic behavior rates.
Overall, our results indicate that factors related to the social environment are most influential in predicting elephant stereotypic behavior rates. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Data Availability: For reasons relating to protection of the facilities and animals included in this study, access restrictions apply to the individual-level data underlying the findings.
A data set of de-identified, population-level data is available at doi: AWARE Institute is a commercial entity founded by CLM in and provides animal welfare assessment, research and education services to zoos and aquariums. These interests do not alter the authors' adherence to all the PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials, as detailed online in the guide for authors.
Questions have been raised about whether zoos can adequately provide for the physical and psychological needs of elephants [ 1 ]. One concern is that zoo elephants perform abnormal behaviors e. The development and performance of stereotypic behaviors in animals is associated with the inhibition of highly motivated behaviors, negative subjective states, and central nervous system dysfunction [ 5 ].
