The Welfare of Animals Part 3 docx

This can be illustrated by comparing the welfare of wild cats, which arenative to most of the world, feral cats, which live in most peri-urban districts,and domesticated cats.. Gaur catt

Can we expect the same of animals – would they benefit from a closerelationship with nature? Clearly they do not appear to use art to portray anypositive feelings about nature, although sometimes their constructions, such asthe nest of a bower bird, portray a sense of order and invoke a feeling of wonderthat may incline us to believe that it is art In contrast to this, the activities of theelephants that are persuaded to daub paint on canvases which are sold totourists in Asia are not art, but merely the performance of a reward-drivenbehaviour Even though they don’t usually portray their feelings through thesort of art that we know and understand, we have reason to expect that animalsderive similar benefit from a close connection to nature As well as us, animalsare likely to benefit from being able to identify the natural features of theenvironment and return to safe places at times of danger, find food sourcesmore readily and obtain shelter when needed If a latent need to be close tonature is present in humans and animals, it is likely that both derive mentalsatisfaction from a more natural environment – a need that may be partiallysatisfied if the enrichment in a cage is natural rather than artificial.

There have been a few experiments designed to test this hypothesis One suchwas an attempt to discover whether rabbits, a natural grazing animal, prefer toeat grass or whether they would be satisfied with an artificial food mix that iscommonly offered to caged rabbits (Leslie et al., 2004) The rabbits showed noclear preference for grass, although this could be explained because the mixcould be eaten faster, and most prey animals like to consume their food asquickly as possible so that they can retreat to safety Other students in my groupwere unable to demonstrate any benefit of, or serious interest in, naturalenrichment (foliage and tree branches) for gliders (Greer, 2006) or the scents

of favourite plants for squirrel monkeys (Carling, 2005) in a zoo environment

In another experiment, my research group did find that cattle function moreefficiently (as in circumnavigating an obstacle faster) when their environment isbathed in green light, compared with red or blue light (Phillips and Lomas,2001), suggesting that the light under trees might be more attractive However,this could just be because this is in the middle of their visual spectrum, whereacuity would be expected to be increased This is a limited set of experiments,and there is much more to be done to test the hypothesis, but we can onlyconclude that so far there is very little evidence on whether animals benefit frombeing kept in a more natural environment

If the hypothesis is supported, that animals do have a sense of beauty orrespect for natural things, compared with man-made, then it may well be ofbenefit to the animals in zoos to provide tree branches for animals to climb,rather than alkathene pipes, or foliage to eat rather than pelleted food Cagesare often made to look natural for the benefit of the viewing public, whoequate it with better welfare This could be tested and adopted if foundbeneficial for animals in other intensive management situations – farmedand laboratory animals in particular What features of the natural environ-ment would be beneficial to add to the environment of animals housed inintensive environments? Should it be green, but this might not be appropriate

for a desert animal, and to what extent are these enrichment forms speciesspecific? There are opportunities for research to determine the responses tonatural or unnatural enrichment, but the difficulties centre on how to measurethe responses Some experts consider that it is not important that enrichmentmimics the situation in the wild (naturalism), rather that the animal canperform similar tasks to those that it would perform in the wild (functional-ism) (Swaisgood et al., 2003).

There are alternative hypotheses to the benefit of a sense of beauty thatman has when he is in touch with nature In the Christian religion, followersare encouraged to view nature as the work of God, for example in the Psalms,which encourage reverence for God and a belief in his powers in nature.Furthermore, if a god has instilled in man a sense of respect for nature, and

in the Christian religion at least, has ordained man to manage and look afteranimals, then a sense of respect for nature, and a feeling of pleasure when weare in contact with it and it is correctly managed, would be a significant steptowards achieving this goal We may feel a sense of awe when we see amagnificent mountain, but when we see nature destroyed, such as when wecome across animals killed on the road, or the mountain is transformed intopiles of waste stones or slate by open-caste mining, we feel a sense of loss orshame In the past many works of art were created by people supposedlyinspired by their religion, but as Dawkins has argued, this is not necessarilyevidence that a god exists, rather that the artists were following the dominantconvictions of the time (Dawkins, 2006)

If our sense of wonder at nature was simply a feeling of nostalgia, a yearning

to return to the times when man was in close contact with nature, it is unclearwhat benefit would derive from such a feeling There can be no doubt that man’sinventions, his construction of an artificial world around him, have benefitedhis survival They have enabled him to colonise the planet in even the mosthostile of regions, to live in relative comfort, with increased longevity andimproved quality of life And yet man still benefits mentally and to some extentphysically from close contact with nature The close and positive relationshipwith animals benefits people as much as it does the animals The advantages of aclose relationship between animals and their owners are emphasized in books

on animal management, e.g English et al (1992), and they provide an altruisticreason for improving animal welfare, which is often referred to in prose, sincepeople looking after animals well are themselves enriched by the experience.Conversely people that are cruel to animals are considered outcasts by society.For example, the poet William Blake emphasized the antisocial nature of ill-treatment of animals:

He who shall hurt the little wren

Shall never be beloved by men

He who the Ox to wrath has movd

Shall never be by Woman lov’d

Blake, 1803

Having exhorted those who might be considering animal ill-treatment not to,Blake then encouraged people not to harm animals for fear of the wrath thatmight be upon them if they did:

Kill not the moth or butterfly

For the Last Judgement draweth nigh

Furthermore those who perpetrate cruelty to animals may not be at peacewith themselves, let alone other men Yet cruelty continues for several reasons.One is that it can become a form of redirected aggression About one half ofprisoners convicted of animal abuse are motivated by anger, the rest beingmotivated by the need for sex or to impress or imitate others (Hensley andTallichet, 2005) When confronted with aggression from other humans, anindividual may turn to animals, and particularly companion animals, to releasetheir own aggressive impulses, because the chances of retaliation are less

A second reason is because animal managers are confronted with diverse ethicaldilemmas, such as whether to place personal ethical standards, which requirethat he provides for his family, above the welfare of the animals in his charge.Similarly, provision of high standards of animal care may conflict with mini-mizing the environmental impact of a farm, an important consideration inrelation to free range systems of production A third reason is the desensitiza-tion of animal managers to the plight of animals in their charge It seems likelythat this is most common when animals are only in the care of the manager for abrief time (such as abattoir workers) Those with long term care responsibilities,such as companion animal or guide dog owners or managers of farm animalsthat are used to produce milk, are less likely to become desensitized to pain andcruelty

Life in a Natural Setting

Some people might imagine that for animals in the wild there are stressesuntold, which reduces their welfare compared with the husbanded animals.However, it is wrong to imagine that grazing impala on the plains of theSerengeti, with a crouched lion just a few metres away from them, sufferprolonged stress They know their escape capabilities and can judge their flightdistance very effectively There is a similarly relationship between the wolvesand caribou of the northern Canadian territories (Mowat, 1963), where wolveswill periodically test the fitness of fawns and old does by making them run, since

in these animals there is a greater proportion of injured, malformed or inferioranimals According to Mowat (1963), the caribou herd respond by shelteringthese animals in the centre of their herds The young wolf pups are taught to testweak animals in this way and ignore the majority of the herd, who are free tograze within a few metres of the wolves Population density is mainly controlled

by birth rate, which increases in times of plenty In times of food shortage thebiggest direct killer is not starvation but disease, with malnourished animals

quickly succumbing to rabies, distemper or mange The major welfare influencehas probably been from humans, even in this remote area, since wolves havebeen poisoned with strychnine because of their supposed remorseless killing ofcaribou.

Hence there is little evidence that animals in nature are constantly at risk ofpredation or that this causes prolonged stress, which would not in any case beadaptive for survival The stress reaction evolved to cope with short term dangerand the increased metabolic rate and other physiological adaptations caused bystress would not be adaptive in the long term Being stressed is less efficientmetabolically but it places the animal in a position of readiness to cope withdanger Darwin epitomized this view when he wrote ’We may console ourselveswith the full belief, that the war of nature is not incessant, that no fear is felt, thatdeath is generally prompt, and that the vigorous, the healthy, and the happysurvive and multiply’ (Darwin, 1859) His words suggest that he believed that itwas maladaptive for animals to be constantly stressed by the presence of pre-dators, and hence the flight or fight response is not usually continually activated.Although they may not be stressed by the presence of predators, the optimi-sation of population size in relation to food resources means that wild animalsare often less well nourished than their captive counterparts, which can reducetheir welfare Their typical longevity is usually less than their captive counter-parts, perhaps only one half, with not only reduced plane of nutrition, but alsolimited possibilities for medication, in the event of sickness, and exposure toclimatic extremes However, some animals are particularly difficult to keep incaptivity, such as elephants Mean longevity of zoo elephants is only about 20years, compared with 70 years in the wild (Wiese and Willis, 2004) Footproblems, caused by inadequate exercise, moist substrate on the floor, andexacerbated by obesity, together with circulatory disorders, account for themajority of premature deaths in zoos In addition elephants will rarely breed inzoos (Clubb and Mason, 2003) Thus the achievement of potential lifespan incaptivity depends on man’s willingness to provide suitable living conditions.Exposure to climatic extremes can cause major loss of life in both wildlifeand free range livestock The following passage by the wife of one of thepioneering Kenyan game wardens describes the devastating impact of drought

on wildlife

the rains had been disappointing and insufficient to promote much regeneration of the shrubs favoured by rhino Every bush was browsed almost to the ground, leaving only the hardwood Lack of water elsewhere in the Park forced the elephant herds on to the river, and the vegetation suffered still further Patrols brought in distressing reports of rhino dying daily the plight of the rhino in the area was indeed pitiful and thereports had in no way been exaggerated We saw several rhino, all pathetically weak and covered in black patches, and came upon one, which, unable to stand, was lying in the blazing sun and had only just enough strength to snort faintly and toss its head as

we approached We tried to encourage it to eat, but it had lost the desire to live anddied shortly afterwards .Further along, we came across a baby rhino standing sadlybeside its mother’s carcass, nudging it at intervals and obviously puzzled at getting no response The rangers quickly surrounded this little calf, who, although small and

helpless, courageously refused to leave his mother’s body and stood to face what he believed to be his enemies The gallant behaviour of this baby rhino moved me to such

an extent that I wished with all my heart that he might be spared and that we would be able to rear him But another look at his wasted body, made me realise that there was little hope and this proved to be the case for, although we took him back to camp and did our best to save him, he died that night.

On another occasion, we found a rhino lying on the banks of the river in the last stages of exhaustion, while a host of vultures were tearing the living flesh off its hind quarters It was too feeble to keep them off and could only lie there and endure the torture in silence A merciful bullet brought its suffering to end.

Every day brought fresh examples of the appalling suffering which these nate creatures were enduring One particular incident which upset us greatly was the death of an old female rhino, who was well known to us for she possessed a pair of unusually long horns She had been trying to reach some green leaves growing from a branch of a tree overhanging the river bank and had lost her footing and fallen into a pile of driftwood below We found her fairly wedged between two logs with her head only a few feet from the edge of the river It was obvious that she had been in this position from many hours, if not days, and it is not difficult to imagine the torment she had undergone dying an agonising death of thirst with cool water running by just out of reach When we found her she was still alive and while the Rangers tried to free her with the help of an axe, I dipped my sweater into the river and squeezed the water though her parched lips She gave a couple of weak gulps but again we were too late , and, with a heartrending sigh, she died a few minutes later (Sheldrick, 1966).

unfortu-In contrast to the suffering of wild animals under such conditions, farm animalsare usually offered supplementary feed or moved to better conditions in suchcircumstances The delicate balance in the natural world is well understood bythose managing game and national parks Although they can do little to influencethe forces of nature, or the balance of wildlife, they understand the importance ofmaintaining these reserves as a sanctuary for wildlife, when the forces of modernpopulation pressure and the ensuing agricultural development bring even morehardship to wild animals attempting to gain succour from the land This is howSheldrick describes the objectives of one of the African game parks:

the foundations of the Park have been laid with infinite care, patience and endurance,

by a handful of dedicated men, not for material gain, but simply out of a deep rooted and sincere love of animals It was as though the Creator, conscious of the threat to so many of his creatures in a fast changing world, called upon them to establish an island, where His animals can enjoy the freedom craved for so desperately by man himself, but often denied by him to his four-legged neighbours; a sanctuary where these have the right to live their lives in peace, and in doing so, can bring enjoyment to hundreds of people I have come to look upon them, not as four-legged machines put here for thebenefit of mankind, but as creatures with as much right to enjoy the world God gave them as we have (Sheldrick, 1966).

Although there are examples like the one above of occasional widespreadslaughter and suffering of native animals, for the most part they are well fed andhealthy This can be illustrated by comparing the welfare of wild cats, which arenative to most of the world, feral cats, which live in most peri-urban districts,and domesticated cats The wild cats have evolved over millennia to theirenvironment, and they are usually well fed Evolving as an animal that thrives

particularly well in desert environment, they are well prepared for hot, dryconditions Nearly all are free from diseases for the majority of their life,because of their large home range and low stocking density, which reduces thechance of high parasite populations to challenge the cats The fluctuations inthe numbers of their prey would be less than for feral cats, and natural selectionwould quickly remove any animals that became sick and vulnerable Thegenetic variation is much greater than for feral and domestic cats, enabling aneffective immune response to disease challenges in at least some animals(O’Brien et al., 2006) Wild cats are capable of being carriers of exotic diseases,such as the Feline Immunodeficiency Virus or feline homologue of the humanHIV, without major suffering Such diseases cause serious clinical symptoms

in domestic cats (O’Brien et al., 2006) There is no clear evidence of greatersusceptibility to disease of feral cats or domestic cats in shelters (Case et al.,2006)

As well as having limited genetic diversity to cope with disease, feral cats inperi-urban districts are subjected to a fluctuating food supply, often basedaround fast food outlets They scavenge and may have to resort to consumingunnatural ‘food’ items, such as plastic bags They are often in bad condition,emaciated and with skin disorders and parasites The disease status can beinfluenced by the health status of the prey animals, particularly in areas wherewild cats are not native So, for example in New Zealand it has been found that38% of feral cats are infected with the rabbit haemorrhagic disease virus(Henning et al., 2006) However, they have freedom to roam, which is oftenrestricted in domesticated cats The latter are fed a highly nutritious diet, buthigh nutrient intake coupled with inadequate opportunities to exercise may lead

to health complications such as diabetes Usually they have to change frombeing nocturnal to diurnal to match their owners (although they tend to revertback to nocturnality in old age) They are often kept permanently indoors,especially if the owners live in an apartment, as is increasingly popular.Although artificial breeding has produced domesticated cats that appear tohave less need for access to outside areas than wild cats, they are not yet welladapted to the extremes of intensive human existence, in small apartmentsseveral floors from the ground Their desire to perform natural behaviours isthwarted by their environment Most people would agree that, of these threedifferent types of cat, the welfare is best for the native animal

Charles Darwin believed that nature prepares animals better for mental challenges than artificial breeding: ’Man selects only for his own good,Nature only for that of the being which she tends’ (Darwin, 1857) Thus, it islikely that valuable information can be attained from studying the wild relatives

environ-of domesticated animals, especially in relation to their behavioural needs Forexample the Gaur cattle of Asia (Bos gaurus gaurus) could inform us about thebehavioural needs of domestic cattle Gaur cattle are one of the last remnants ofwild cattle with a similar genotype to our modern domesticated cattle anddespite the obvious merit in studying their behaviour, few attempts have beenmade to do so The extent to which animals can perform natural behaviour

could be a better indicator of welfare than an anthropomorphic assessment ofthe conditions of the animals.

An example of the difficulties of an anthropomorphic assessment of welfare

is the early weaning of dairy calves from their mother Most people wouldbelieve that removing the offspring at one day of age would greatly reduced thewelfare of both cow and calf, even if it does continue to be fed milk, althoughthis time reconstituted from powdered sources Research shows that stresslevels experienced by the cow following separation do not support any conten-tion of a major welfare impact (Hopster et al., 1995) However, it is necessary toconsider what opportunities for close bonding between cow and calf have beenforgone by the separation, emphasizing not the negative impact of the separa-tion, but the absence of positive events

Animals in the Wild, What Can They Tell Us About the Needs

of Domestic Animals?

How important is the domestication process in determining an animal’s vioural needs? To answer that question, we must study the behaviour ofdomestic animals in wild and semi-extensive conditions and compare it to thebehaviour of wild progenitors of domestic animals in the same environments.For example, there are opportunities to observe the behaviour of domesticcattle under natural conditions, such as at the Chillingham estate in northernEngland Parkland cattle such as these were typically introduced to Britishstately homes to enhance the aesthetic qualities of the landscape in the 18thand 19th C, and have often been resident as a herd for several hundred years

beha-A point of concern is that the opening of the estates to visitors in recent timeshas meant that the cattle can no longer be considered entirely free from humancontact (Ritvo, 1992) One point of interest of such herds is their naturalconfiguration of mixed sex groups Unlike most domestic herds, where maleand female cattle are segregated, these mixed sex groups typically adopt amatriarchal herd structure with groups of 10 to 20 animals being led by adominant cow, and bulls that are evicted from the herd at puberty (Hall andHall, 1988) This structure mirrors that of wild cattle herds, but is the behaviour

of wild and domestic cattle similar? The behaviour of domestic cattle is wellunderstood (Phillips, 2002), but opportunities to observe the behaviour of wildcattle have been rare

I have been fortunate to study this in the central highlands of Malaysia,where there exists one of the last remaining groups of wild cattle that are closerelatives of the domesticated Bos taurus and Bos indicus cattle used in farmingsystems today Deep in the highland jungle, there are several hundred BosGaurus(Gaur) cattle, which have lived in this ancient habitat for many millen-nia Most of Malaysia is covered with date palm or rubber plantation, but theHighland regions are difficult to cultivate and there are a remnants of rainforest

that preserve an important habitat for tropical fauna, including the Gaur cattle,

or seladang in Malaysian (Solti et al., 2000) Cattle exist there in small groups ofabout half a dozen individuals, led by a dominant female with a dominant maleclose by, but outside the matriarchal group (Fig 2.4) The only predator is thetiger, which will occasionally take small calves, but when there is the threat ofattack the members of the herd will form a stockade facing outwards and themale will join the group as the primary defence unit Bull threatening behaviour

is similar to that seen in domesticated bulls: shaking of the head, pawing theground, snorting and adopting a threatening ’intention to charge’ posture Thisdemonstrates that the behaviour of wild cattle under threat of attack is similar

to that of domestic cattle In this and other behaviours, the differences betweenwild cattle behaviour and that of domestic cattle appear due mainly to theenvironments in which they are kept, and not their genetic constitution Thereare differences in morphology between wild cattle and today’s domestic cattle,with the former being deeper bodied, with pronounced strengthening of theanterior vertebrae to enhance the ability of bulls to clash heads and withstandthe impact of charging This deeper body structure causes the vocalisations tolower in pitch compared with domestic cattle Apart from these differences inmorphology, it is clearly possible to use observation of wild cattle behaviour as

an indicator of the behavioural needs of domestic cattle

To find out more about the behaviour of Gaur cattle, I trekked in the junglewith local rangers and camped at the logging stations, using a four-wheel-drivevehicle to scour the logging roads and those at the edge of the jungle nearplantations, to try to find the tracks of the wild Gaur cattle We found old cattletracks, as well as tigers, wild boar, deer and tapir, but local villagers told us thatthe logging activities were disturbing the cattle too much and they had retreated

to the higher lands At the junction between the jungle and the oil palmplantation, where the cattle had previously been observed entering the planta-tion to forage at night, a double stranded high-voltage electric fence had been

Fig 2.4 Family group of

Bos gaurus cattle, Krau

Wildlife Reserve, Malaysia

erected to keep both cattle and elephants from damaging the palm trees.Elephants are helpful to the Gaur cattle in clearing areas of the forest to allowshoots, grasses and other diverse young, nutritious vegetation to grow, but thesize of this wildlife reserve was too small to sustain a large number of elephants.

We found recent cattle tracks at a salt lick, but even there the cattle were tooelusive, being now very wary of human presence, because of the intrusion ofloggers and local people The local Orang Asli people were causing moredisturbance in the forest now that they have motorbikes to go to the villagesfor the foodstuffs that they cannot get from the forest, such as sugar and rice.However, their natural coexistence with other forest life was evident, and theywere still using blowpipes to secure monkeys for food, trapping birds by puttingsticky substances on tree branches and collecting rattan, which they sell forfurniture making They had little to do with the cattle, and it was clear that thesecattle were very shy of humans We returned to the park headquarters, with nodirect sightings, but evidence of cattle activity in the park Fortunately, therewas a captive Gaur cattle breeding programme at the park headquarters, withten large paddocks of 1–2 hectares each, and three to five Gaur cattle in each.Some animals had been in this programme for as long as 25 years, demonstrat-ing that in this case the lifespan of wild cattle was well in excess of that ofdomesticated cattle, which are usually only kept for four to five years if they aredairy cows and one to three years if they are being reared for beef Observingwild cattle in these large paddocks was ideal as it resembled their natural foresthabitat, but the animals were close enough for observation

The cattle being primarily nocturnal, I visited the animals at all times of theday and night to obtain an accurate picture of their natural behaviour By nightthey foraged continuously, taking mainly small twigs and leaves from treematerial cut locally (the paddocks were not large enough to provide sufficientbrowse material for the cattle on a permanent basis) Their diet was markedlydifferent from domesticated cattle, which are primarily offered pasture grass It

is still possible to see domestic cattle browsing the lower branches of orchardsand trees in mixed tree/grass systems, demonstrating that grazing is not theironly method of food procurement The wild Gaur cattle only grazed if there was

a shortage of tree fodder The paddocks being relatively small meant that thegrass was quite short, but of good nutritive value

Another evident difference between the behaviour of wild and domesticcattle was the nocturnal habit of wild cattle, feeding by night and resting andruminating during the day This may have been a strategy that evolved to limitactivity during the hot periods of the day in the tropical environment, but it mayalso limit the predation risk to young calves, since they can lie out of sightduring the day Cattle have large eyes with a reflective layer, tapetum, on theretina, which gives them good night vision (Lomas et al., 1998) Domestic cattleare also active at night, rarely sleeping, but their carers generally only see themduring the day

Heat stress resistance was enhanced in the Gaur cattle by the production ofsebum, which reflects the heat, something which we no longer see in domestic

cattle in colder climates, which developed long coats in the domesticationprocess in the northern latitudes The sebum also deters flies from attackingthe cattle’s skin (Warnes, 1995) In hot climates, such as in Israel, cattle havereverted to a shiny, sleek coat which reflects the heat, compared with the long,hairy coats of cold climate cattle The sebum production of the Gaur cattle wasmost evident in the mature animals, which are more susceptible to heat stress,and not in the calves Suckling naturally lasted for nine months, compared tojust a day or two in most dairy cows, after which the calves are offeredpowdered milk for just six weeks.

Reproductive behaviour in the Gaur cattle was limited to contact betweenthe males and females during copulation, with little evidence of a prolongedcourtship Copulation started soon after the cow had given birth and usually led

to a second pregnancy, which progressed whilst she suckled her first calf Therewas no apparent seasonality in their reproduction, as expected in this equatoriallatitude By contrast, domestic cows often aggregate into sexually active groupsduring their oestrus and engage in homosexual courtship behaviour: mounting,sniffing and licking the anogenital region and rubbing their chins on eachother’s rumps This is more pronounced in intensively-managed housed cows,rather than in cows outdoors, which suggests that it may be partly a response tothe stress of the intensive environment, a phenomenon that we have observed inother mammals (Feige et al., 2007) It is also possible that humans selected forthis behaviour during the domestication process, when bulls were probablyshared between several families A distinctive behaviour such as mountingwould enable the cowmen to identify when their animals were ready to beserved by the village bull

The final difference that I observed between domestic and wild cattle was intheir lying behaviour When domestic cattle lie down, they usually tuck theirhead back towards their thorax, which may be to protect it from being tram-pling in a crowded environment (Phillips, 2002) The wild cattle always layasleep with their head fully outstretched

In all other respects, the behaviour of the wild cattle matched that ofdomestic cattle very closely Tails swishing to remove flies, herding behaviour,cleaning the nostrils with the tongue and many other behaviours were allidentical These captive wild cattle adjusted to friendly human presence quitereadily and would allow themselves to be touched, and stroked by people, andthey recognised familiar individuals Therefore, some behaviours have changed,because of the different circumstances of domestic cattle, but the innate motiva-tions are mostly the same It is most often the stressful conditions of the housedmost after environment that requires cattle to change their behaviour Theirlying stalls, or cubicles, are often cramped and they can have difficulty changingposition and standing up and lying down In a cubicle house, they may beconfronted by more dominant cows that can be aggressive, so subordinate cowsstand half inside their lying stalls, to get some protection from other cows.Much more could be done to examine the behaviour of wild cattle to assist us inunderstanding the behaviour of domestic cattle, especially as the wild Gaur

cattle of the Malaysian highlands are threatened with extinction There are alsoGaur cattle in India, but they are mostly semi-domesticated.

Observing animals in the wild therefore reinforces concerns about housingthem in small, confined spaces Another animal that lives in the Malaysianjungle that has controversially been brought into confined spaces, this time forpublic viewing, is the Asian elephant The circumstances of elephants in zoospresent a number of welfare concerns, of which the lack of space and theabsence of natural foraging behaviour are the most serious These problemslead to low reproductive rates and the display of abnormal behaviours such asrocking and swaying (Wilson et al., 2004)

In relation to reproduction, studies of the elephants in North American andEuropean zoos (where there are several hundred altogether and it is possible toevaluate their reproductive success) have shown that the reproductive rate willnot sustain even the zoo population, let alone providing elephants to return tothe wild (Clubb and Mason, 2003) One reason for the low reproductive rate isthe small number of animals that exist in each zoo, which limits breedingopportunities, and another is likely to be the inadequate conditions in whichthey are often kept in comparison to their natural environment The size andcost of maintaining an elephant in a zoo means that there are rarely more thantwo or three animals together Introduction of new animals causes stress(Schmid et al., 2001) This contrasts with the situation in the wild, where theanimals live in matriarchal groups of 10–30 animals, with several generationstogether and long-lasting social relationships (Schulte, 2000) In rangelandconditions some much larger herds of 50 to 100 animals form Bulls are evictedfrom the matriarchal group at puberty and naturally live an isolated existence,although they sometimes roam the forest in a bachelor group of two or threeanimals

In the wild, the distances covered by both the matriarchal group and the bullsare considerable These animals, by virtue of their size and feeding habits,damage the trees in their habitat, and cannot afford to stay in one place toolong Home ranges vary from 10 to 800 km2(Dolmia et al., 2007; Shannon et al.,2006), but in zoos they are in enclosures typically of only a few hundred squaremetres, so that they can be readily seen by the public Minimum recommendedsize requirements for enclosures, which are about 100–200 m2per elephant,relate more to what is possible than any considerations of the animal’s beha-vioural needs

It is difficult to recreate an elephant’s environmental needs in a small zooenclosure Their natural environment is highly complex, and in the case of theAsian elephants, they may obtain food from almost all strata of the jungle:grasses and herbs from the floor, fruit, roots, leaves from bushes and shrubs, aswell as small trees, some of which may be knocked over so that they can feedfrom the floor Sometimes they will even stand on their hind legs to reach fortallest browse material They spend about 16–17 hours per day looking for andeating food, whereas in zoos a nutrient rich diet is provided that they usuallyconsume in about 10 hours (Clubb and Mason, 2003) As a result of their

environment being so restricted, they develop repeated, stereotyped behaviours:rocking or swaying repetitively, raising and lowering their legs or stimulatingtheir mouths with their trunk, particularly before they are fed, handled ortrained These stereotyped behaviours have recently been linked to increasedlevels of the stress hormone cortisol and seem to function as a mechanism tocope with the stress of their environment (Wilson et al., 2004).

The training methods present another serious welfare issue, with the animalsinitially needing to be ‘broken’ by their keeper, so that they can be chained bythe leg both during the night and when procedures are carried out on theelephants The methods used in training include electric goads or long metalrods to control the animals’ movement and isolation in between trainingsessions, so that the animal comes to value its moments of freedom and becomesresponsive to the demands of the trainer Close attachments can form, but themovement of elephants in captive breeding programmes makes these long-termattachments difficult Regular movement of bull elephants around zoos forbreeding purposes, although mimicking the roving behaviour of the bull inthe wild, leads to serious welfare problems, because zoos will usually onlyprovide small, restricted enclosures for the bulls to live in for the short timethat they are required to serve the females Not surprisingly, reproductivebehaviour in such circumstances is very limited and there is a likelihood thatzoos will now use artificial insemination to overcome this problem (Andrabiand Maxwell, 2007; Hermes et al., 2007) However, the bulls will still have totravel, because bulls’ semen is not usually viable after freezing The insemina-tion procedure is much more difficult than domestic animals like cattle or sheep,and calf mortality is high Hence breeding success rate, even with artificialinsemination, has been disappointingly low

In my visit to the central highlands of Malaysia, I was able to see first handthe problems facing the Asian elephant, such as enclosing the oil palm planta-tions with electric fences so that they cannot forage there at night, logging of atleast the biggest trees in the forest and greater human activity Our riversidecamp was visited by a herd of elephants at 5 a.m., and I wondered then how longthey would survive there with the extent of the logging and other humanactivities Controlling the expansion of the human population in south-eastAsia and the human activity in the forest, including logging, is the only way toensure the survival of this species Every child learns about elephants in storybooks and wants to see one, but confinement of these most intelligent anddemanding of animals in small spaces in zoos is less desirable than in situconservation, in particular addressing the problems in the South East Asianregion If in the face of continued human population and agricultural expansion

in the region the in situ conservation ultimately proves impossible, then ities with adequate conditions for elephant welfare should be provided in zoosand wildlife parks

facil-My next opportunity to compare wild animals’ behaviour directly with those

in captivity was again in Malaysia, this time in Sarawak on the island of Borneo

I visited the Bako National Park, where there are about 200 proboscis