Play in Elephants: Wellbeing, Welfare or Distraction?

ABSTRACT: We explore elephant play behaviour since (a) play has been proposed to represent a potential welfare indicator; and (b) play has been associated with long-term survival in the wild. We categorised play into four types, and investigate both social (gentle, escalated-contact) and non-social (lone-locomotor, exploratory-object) play from observations made on wild (Asian N = 101; African N = 130) and captive (Asian N = 8; African N = 7) elephant calves ranging in age from birth to five years. Social play was the most frequent type of play among immature elephants, accounting for an average of 3%-9% of active time. Non-social play accounted for an additional 1%-11% of time. The most time spent in play was seen in captive Asian calves, particularly at the ages of 1-6 months, while wild African c

SUBMITTER: Webber CE 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7071055 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature