Social Interactions in Captive Elephant Populations

After finding out about the final year research project, I was determined to focus on an area that interests me. I have always been fascinated by elephants and passionate about learning about their unique and complex behaviours and therefore the opportunity to conduct research into elephant sociality is one I’m really looking forward to. If I can gain access to video recordings of captive groups of elephants I can closely study interactions between individuals. I feel that this research could increase help in increasing knowledge and recognition of indicators of welfare, such as breakdowns of social ties. Welfare of elephants in captivity is highly important due to the species dependence on breeding programmes to raise numbers and awareness of the detrimental effects of poaching and habitat loss.

Progress so far has been slow because I’m waiting for permission to use videos that are currently being recorded in zoos, but I have had a couple of meetings with my supervisor and I’m trying to do as much as I can at this stage. I have a title, but that may possibly change depending on what aspects of sociality I will be focusing on and the video recordings I will have access to. I’ve also been trying to prepare as much as I can in advance by searching for and reading relevant papers and looking at the ethics and risk assessment forms as well as piecing together a draft introduction. I’ve been reading into elephant social groups and structures to form a hypothesis of what I might expect to find in captive groups.

Once I know for sure if/when I can access the video footage I can develop the method a lot more. I can learn how to use computer software to analyse interactions and focus on collecting data.