title: Walking Behavior of Zoo Elephants: Associations between GPS-Measured Daily Walking Distances and Environmental Factors, Social Factors, and Welfare Indicators.
abstract: Research with humans and other animals suggests that walking benefits physical health. Perhaps because these links have been demonstrated in other species, it has been suggested that walking is important to elephant welfare, and that zoo elephant exhibits should be designed to allow for more walking. Our study is the first to address this suggestion empirically by measuring the mean daily walking distance of elephants in North American zoos, determining the factors that are associated with variations in walking distance, and testing for associations between walking and welfare indicators. We used anklets equipped with GPS data loggers to measure outdoor daily walking distance in 56 adult female African (n = 33) and Asian (n = 23) elephants housed in 30 North American zoos. We collected 259 days of data and determined associations between distance walked and social, housing, management, and demographic factors. Elephants walked an average of 5.3 km/day with no significant difference between species. In our multivariable model, more diverse feeding regimens were correlated with increased walking, and elephants who were fed on a temporally unpredictable feeding schedule walked 1.29 km/day more than elephants fed on a predictable schedule. Distance walked was also positively correlated with an increase in the number of social groupings and negatively correlated with age. We found a small but significant negative correlation between distance walked and nighttime Space Experience, but no other associations between walking distances and exhibit size were found. Finally, distance walked was not related to health or behavioral outcomes including foot health, joint health, body condition, and the performance of stereotypic behavior, suggesting that more research is necessary to determine explicitly how differences in walking may impact elephant welfare.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, Portland State University, Portland, Oregon, United States of America.|Conservation Research Division, Oregon Zoo, Portland, Oregon, United States of America.
authors.forename: Matthew R
authors.initials: MR
authors.lastname: Holdgate
authors.affiliation: AWARE Institute, Portland, Oregon, United States of America.
authors.forename: Cheryl L
authors.initials: CL
authors.lastname: Meehan
authors.affiliation: AWARE Institute, Portland, Oregon, United States of America.
authors.forename: Jennifer N
authors.initials: JN
authors.lastname: Hogan
authors.affiliation: Chicago Zoological Society-Brookfield Zoo, Brookfield, Illinois, United States of America.
authors.forename: Lance J
authors.initials: LJ
authors.lastname: Miller
authors.affiliation: Department of Education & Science, Disney's Animal Kingdom, Lake Buena Vista, Florida, United States of America.
authors.forename: Joseph
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Soltis
authors.affiliation: Zoological Operations, Busch Gardens, Tampa, Florida, United States of America.
authors.forename: Jeff
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Andrews
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, Portland State University, Portland, Oregon, United States of America.|Conservation Research Division, Oregon Zoo, Portland, Oregon, United States of America.
authors.forename: David J
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: Shepherdson
mesh_terms: D000827:Animal Welfare; D000818:Animals; D000836:Animals, Zoo / Q000502:physiology*; D001522:Behavior, Animal / Q000502:physiology*; D004606:Elephants / Q000502:physiology*; D004777:Environment; D005260:Female; D012931:Social Environment; D013239:Stereotyped Behavior / Q000502:physiology; D016138:Walking / Q000502:physiology*