Does Welfare And Abnormal Behaviors Caused By Elephants?

Not surprisingly, elephants are known for being more emotional and empathetic animals than the rest. According the three articles, “Elephants Can Lend a Helping Trunk”, “Elephants Know When They Need a Helping Trunk in a Cooperative Task”, and “Elephants Console Each Other” elephants understand when they need each other’s assistance. All two authors describe the studies of elephant behavior differently, but with a similar purpose.

Animals are deprived of their natural habitat when transferred from the wild open space of the wild only to be fenced inside a limited habitat. Peta.org explains “Elephants typically walk up to 30 miles in just one day, but Lucy, the lone elephant at the Edmonton Zoo, is locked inside a barn… spends most of her time indoors…”. This doesn’t only apply to elephants, but to many other animals. Preventing them from thriving, because of the limited space provided per animal. Additionally, this leads to health problems because of the restricted amount of movement, health problems like arthritis. However zoos are not only causing physical harm, but mentally making animals sick causing many cases of depression. Trapping animals in cages stressed them out and can make them unhappy taking matters into their own hands trying to kill themselves according to

The official title of the world’s largest land dwelling animal belongs to the elephant, more specifically, the African elephant. Elephants are some of the most deadly animals, which increases the danger of human and elephant interactions. Increased human and elephant interactions lead to increased deaths of both humans and elephants. Surprisingly, these animals are socially apt. The trunk is used for more than just eating and drinking; it is used for socializing. They are complex animals who live in large familial herds. Females stay with their family throughout their entire lives while males only stay for approximately fifteen years (Elephant Protection 1). Elephants possess a great memory and only forget what they learn occasionally and

Living in these zoos, the zookeepers are feeding and taking care of these animals, which is the eradication of their self-reliance. So, animals that are living or are born in captivity lose their instincts to survive progressively each day. In an article from National Geographic News, researcher Kristen Jule says, “Their lack of hunting skills and lack of fear towards humans are major disadvantages” (Owen). Unfortunately, since these animals lose or don’t develop natural hunting and survival skills, they will most likely die in the wild. So, letting the animals free might pose an enormous problem, how are they going to survive without these necessary

Firstly, animals in captivity show distraught behavior and don’t have the same abilities as those in the wild. For example, in the article The Loneliest Elephant written by Tracy Tullis, it states, “With limited space and and no infants to care for, captive elephants can become catatonically bored. A great majority of elephants in American zoos -- as much as 80 percent according to a 2013 study by the Honolulu Zoo -- develop disturbing neurotic behaviors, such as repetitive swaying and head bobbing.” Furthermore, it is clear that some animals in zoos behave differently, in a negative manner, in zoos than in their natural habitat (Tullis, 3). Also, a wildlife behavioral biologist Toni Frohof talks about Happy, an elephant kept in isolation at the Bronx Zoo. His words in The Loneliest Elephant was, “She exhibits self-awareness, yet one of the most important aspects of her psychological and physical life, the ability to be around other elephants, she’s been deprived of.” This shows, elephants who are caged in seclusion don’t feel the same as other elephants who get to be around each other 24/7; Happy is forced to be alone for the rest of her life (Tullis, 3). Concludingly, elephants and other animals can form mental and physical issues while caged or isolated.

Unfortunately, keeping these elephants captive has caused issues. The females are at least 35 years of age which isn’t very essential for reproduction so as a result the mortality rate amongst the calves and disease within the

The author of this article, Michael D. Lemonick, discusses how some animals aren't able to be kept humanely in captivity. This article mainly focuses on elephants that are kept in captivity. Normally elephants roam up to, if not more than, 30 miles a day and they socialize with up to 20 other elephants a day. While in captivity, elephants are not experiencing their lives the way they should. If an elephant is in an exhibit that is too small for them, they can develop serious health issues such as, foot problems, arthritis, and even premature deaths. Most zoos aren't equipped to take care of elephants like they should. Lemonick discusses zoos across the country that have stopped exhibiting elephants altogether, due to severe issues seen in elephants.

When elephants are babies, they are small and easy to restrain. So, trainers will tie them to a post or tree, and at first, they will struggle, some fight against their restraints for days—yearning for freedom—until, gradually, the elephants give up and become complacent. Full grown elephants weigh tons and could easily break away from most constraints, but, despite their massive stature, trained elephants do not fight their trainers or yank against chains, because they have learned that attempts at escape are futile and they are powerless. Physical freedom is well within their grasp, but mental freedom is not; a Thousand Splendid Suns, the Catcher in the Rye, and Song Yet Sung all demonstrate the common theme that

“Asian elephants use touch and sound to console other elephants in distress, according to a new study.It's the first study to confirm that elephants comfort one another in difficult times, the researchers said. Along with humans, this type of behavior has been verified only in great apes, canines and a family of birds called corvids, which includes crows, ravens and blue jays.(source A)” Furthermore in articles “Elephants Console Each Other in Distress: Study” by Emory University, “Elephants Can Lend a Helping Trunk” by Virginia Morrell, and “Elephants Know when they need a helping trunk in a cooperative task” by Josh Plotnik they explain how elephants react when they need assistance or are in mental distress.It has been verified that elephants know when

77 elephants were examined at a British zoo, and only 11 of them were able to walk correctly. It is said that advancements are being made to improve elephant environments in captivity, but numerous zoos have shut down their elephant attractions (Smith, 2008).

Animals play an important role of human life. Wild animal is a kind that normally lives in the wild, for example: elephants, tigers, rhinos and many others. They live in the wild with spacious and natural environment, however many humans kept them in the zoo, as an attraction for the sake of the money. They didn’t think of the wild animals habitat, and there are some problems arise from keeping them in cages. The shock of being in captivity would depress the animals; they would even act hysterically and might hurt people near them. And it is not the animal to be fault. There are three main reasons why wild animals should not be kept in the zoos:

Another problem elephants are facing is that their natural habitats are being wiped out. They aren't able to get enough food like they used to for the day. As a result, many of them are starving to

The behavior of different species of wildlife which are brought into the circus industry also varies, and they therefore require different living conditions. Observing the natural behavior of tigers versus lions illustrates this fact. Unlike tigers, which have a mainly solitary existence, lions are very social, and are really the only big cats which display this characteristic (Whitney). Furthermore, elephants have yet another type of lifestyle, and “form deep family bonds and live in tight matriarchal family groups” (Whitney). By looking at just these few select animals, one can see that they all require different treatment based on their natural predilections. Tigers may be comfortable to exist in solitude with the circus, but a lion would be more accustomed to travelling with his pride, not alone, a sentiment which would be shared my an elephant used to being with a family. Moreover, separate from their preferences for company, both tigers and lions are extremely territorial and are usually in charge

Despite the wild rampage and violent actions of the elephant the animal did eventually calm down. The elephant was being kept by a villager and it simply went crazy because this is what usually happens to tame elephants. “It had been chained up, as tamed elephants always are when their attack of ‘must’ is due” (Orwell, 2). The rampage the elephant went on was fairly common among other elephants that were owned by villagers. The elephant trampled a villager, destroyed another villagers hut, killed one cattle, and damaged other people's property- like their cars. It soon calmed down but the villagers were still in shock from the damage the elephant did. When the policemen finally found the elephant it was calmly eating grass. The policemen didn’t want to shoot him because he knew the elephant would no longer be of harm because the “must” was over. The villagers had been following him when they saw him carrying a gun when chasing after the elephant and now there was a large crowd behind him. The intense pressure of the expectations of the crowd and their lack of respect for him as an English policeman led him to change his mind and shoot the animal.

The first and most obvious sign of being treated unjustly is the size of the animals enclosures. Sure the enclosures may seem large at a glance, but they are definitely not measuring up to the miles and miles of freedom that the animal would have in the wild. Especially for traveling animals such as elephants this creates a large problem. These animals are known to travel approximately thirty miles per day in the wild, and have no chance of doing that in the spaces they are confined to in zoos