Jennie A H Crawley, Hnin Nandar, Htet T Zaw, Mirkka Lahdenperä, Diogo J Franco Dos Santos, Martin W Seltmann, Janine L Brown, Robert M Goodsell, Zaw M Oo, Win Htut, U K Nyein, Htoo H Aung, Virpi Lummaa
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...
April 2024: Royal Society Open Science