The article “Why pace? The influence of social, housing, management, life history, and demographic characteristics on locomotor stereotypy in zoo elephants” written by Greco et al. is about the behaviors of captive elephants in American zoos. This study was conducted in order to determine what factors of captivity within zoos contribute to the development of non-natural behaviors, known as stereotypical behaviors, in captive elephants. To determine these, the researchers developed a classification system with four forms: stationary full body movements, locomotor movements, oral behaviors, and self-directed behaviors. They then filmed at least ten hours of footage of each elephant from 39 different American zoos and added that footage to film …show more content…
Once the data was collected, the researchers conducted various statistical test to determine how the behaviors differed with each individual variable. They found that full body stereotypical behaviors and locomotor stereotypical behaviors were respectively the first and second most prevalent and frequently preformed forms of stereotypical behaviors. They also found that both the amount of time each elephant spent housed alone or indoors and the number of social groups that each elephant was a member of increased the odds that the elephant developed a locomotor behavior, a behavior involving movement, increased as well. They concluded that the amount of time spent alone and the number of social groups an elephant was a member of likely influenced the odds of developing a locomotor stereotypical behavior in elephants because of frustration from not being able to control their own social interactions or from the anticipation of positive events. They also concluded that the amount of time housed inside likely influenced the development of locomotor stereotypical behaviors because indoor environments are less complex and less …show more content…
The main shortcoming of this article was that there were so many variables studied that the researchers had to make many hypotheses including each of these variables. They presented these hypotheses in a table, but the reader still had to do a considerable amount of jumping between pages to be reminded of what their hypotheses were. Another downfall of having multiple variables present is that the results may have been affected by more than just one variable at a time. This could be a possible error of this study, however, there is no conceivable alternative way to eliminate multiple variables. Human error could have also affected the results since multiple people were used to record the behaviors seen and there may have been slight variations in each person’s understanding of the behaviors studied, although this again is virtually unavoidable. For future research, I believe that, like the article suggested, there needs to be studies done to determine whether or not changed management of elephants to avoid some of these risk factors of stereotypical behavior will result in a decrease of stereotypical behaviors in captive
According to the beginning of the video, it states, “Scientists now believe [elephants are] among the world’s most cognitively advanced animals.” The outcome of this experiment was so positive that now elephants are one of the world's most advanced animals. However, this took the scientists by surprise. Subsequently, it also states in the video, “Elephants recently aced an IQ test with two of them even figuring out shortcuts the researches hadn't thought of.” This in particular, was most outstanding due to to the fact that the researchers didn’t even think of the shortcut that the elephants made. This really proves that elephants are wise mammals; possibly, even wiser than us humans. To conclude, it states in the video, “Scientists say the test highlights not only the intelligence of individual elephants but also their ability to cooperate and understand the value of teamwork.” This here exhibits that the elephants understand that certain tasks need to be done with the assistance of others, not just by themselves. Thus, as the video illustrates the elephants are more brainy than we
Have you ever wondered how animals interact and work together to get a job done? Many times, animals put their minds together to complete a task. But what many people do not realize is that animals interact with one another just as humans would. In many instances, people don’t realize the amount of intelligence and common sense that animals, such as the elephant, possess. The study of elephant’s thoughts and thinking were explained and backed up through three different mediums. This information was explained through articles, videos, and passages. Combined, these pieces of work clarified what the experiment was, what it was testing, the purpose behind it, and how the different pieces were
Deborah L. Duffy, Yuying Hsu, James A. Serpell ,Applied Animal Behavior Science - 1 December 2008 (Vol. 114, Issue 3, Pages 441-460, DOI: 10.1016/j.applanim.2008.04.006)
In June of 1904, as reported in the New York Times: Come on out here, Hattie, and give us a tune, It was “Billy” Snyder, keeper of the elephants in the Zoological Gardens, Central Park, New York, who spoke nonchalantly and in his most ordinary tone of voice, while twenty children craned their necks wondrously across the railing. It was “Hattie” the champion trick elephant of the world and the great pet of the children of New York City. Youngsters surprisingly viewed these otherwise threatening, menacing creatures as friends. It would seem that children developed such a close relationship with the animals that each beast was given their own individual personality and characteristics.
Each author has the same purpose in writing about the elephant studies and there are many similarities and differences in which the elephants behaved.
Psychology consists of countless different components that help describe various aspects of individuals both mentally and physically. Though Psychology is used for multiple different areas, one of the most common areas to observe in this field is behaviors. Behaviors range from person to person and can be altered by different situations and variables. The point when behaviors can become of interest is when an individual’s actions and behavior are extreme or they are inconsistent with the appropriate behavior in certain circumstances. These abnormal behaviors are often consistent and can be related to psychological disorders. Though some psychological disorders may be manageable to live
For the purpose of this paper I visited the Los Angeles Zoo, on October 23, 2015. Luckily I was able to visit all of the animals in the short amount of time I had. I primarily stayed at the Gorilla and Chimp exhibit to understand their behaviors and how they act like us.
Elephants Can Lend a Helping Trunk is a passage about a study preformed to test elephants' abilities to collaborate. It explains the basic process of the experiment, and provided in-depth analysis of the results. It made many comparisons between the study and other studies and research and noted the opinions of numerous professionals, which helped show the significance of the test's findings. The purpose of this passage was to primarily to be an entertaining article, and secondarily to inform the reader about the experiment. It was very similar to Elephants Console Each Other in tone and style, but differed more from Elephants Know When They Need a Helping Trunk, mainly because it was less informational, and more enjoyable.
CHAPTER II METHODS Participants Forty members of a Research Methods in Psychology course at the University of Missouri – St. Louis (UMSL) served as participants in this examination. These participants were recruited within their respective laboratory periods. No money was awarded to the subjects for their participation.
Cohn, Jeffrey P. "Do Elephants Belong In Zoos?" Bioscience 56.9 (2006): 714-717. Academic Search Premier. Web. 24 Mar. 2014.
The common name is the African Elephant, the scientific name is Loxodonta Africana, the phylum is Vertebrata, the class is Mammalia, the order is Proboscidea, and the family is Elephantidae. The Closest Relatives to the African Elephant are: the Asian Elephant, mammoths, primitive proboscidean (mastodons), sea cows, and hyraxes. Scientists believe that the African Elephant evolved from one of its closest relatives, the Sea Cow. The geographical location and range of the African elephant covers all of central and southern Africa. In Ethiopia there are isolated populations that exist around Lake Chad in Mali and Mauritania. Also in Kenya, Rhodesia, Tanzania, Zambia, Uganda, Zaire, and in National parks located in South Africa, as well as several other countries. African Elephants, originally, were found in all of the Sub-Saharan African habitats except desert steppes. Elephants still occupy diverse habitats such as: temperate grassland, tropical savanna and grass lands, temperate forest and rainforest, tropical rainforest, tropical scrub forest, and tropical deciduous forest despite their drastic decline in numbers. However, their migratory patterns and habitat use have changed, due to the fact that they are restricted to protected areas. The elephant can exist in many types of environments but it prefers places that have many trees and bushes, which the elephant needs both for food and shade. They also like warm areas that have plenty of rainfall.
...the data did not involve member checking thus reducing its robustness and enable to exclude researcher’s bias. Although a constant comparative method was evident in the discussion which improved the plausibility of the final findings. Themes identified were well corroborated but not declared was anytime a point of theoretical saturation Thus, the published report was found to be particularly strong in the area of believability and dependability; less strong in the area of transferability; and is weak in the area of credibility and confirmability, although, editorial limitations can be a barrier in providing a detailed account (Craig & Smyth, 2007; Ryan, Coughlan, & Cronin, 2007).
Elephants should not be killed because they are one of the main reasons that people visit the foreign land of Africa. Africa is incredibly hot and is not the most intriguing place to go on your vacation. If there were no elephants the amount of tourists would significantly decrease. Twenty eight percent of all tourist come to see the elephants. In the movie “Ivory Wars” the narrator says “ One of the few attractions for tourists is the African elephants that run wild and free across the vast plains of the continent of Africa.” When the amount of tourists decrease so does the money that they pay to see the elephants at a safari. Africa is obviously does not have the strongest economy to begin with and without the elephants to bring in tourists the continent of Africa will fall apart. Elephants are exotic and amazing to see, and without them would there really be a reason to visit Africa?
Attention getter: Lion, tigers, and bears, oh my! When the circus comes rolling into town, many people are excited to go and that is all that is talked about; about the clowns, the trapeze artists, the ring leader, the elephants and all the other marvelous wonders of the circus. But would you all still be excited to go if you knew the truth about the circus and the animal trainers of how they treat the animals? Because in reality, for our spirits to raise at the circus, they break the spirits of all the animals, especially the elephants.
Syne, A., 2006. Meta-analytic review of the effects of enrichment on stereotypic behavior in zoo mammals. Zoo Biology , 25(4), pp. 317-337.