PDF(Pubmed)
Abstract：
With the escalating challenges in captive elephant management, the study of elephant reintegration emerges as a pivotal area of research, primarily addressing the enhancement of animal welfare. The term \'reintegration\' refers to the process of rehabilitating captive elephants to a natural system, allowing them to roam freely without intensive human intervention. There is a relative paucity of research addressing the behavioural adaptations post-reintegration, despite reintegration of over 20 elephants across various fenced reserves in South Africa. Our study centres on two distinct herds of reintegrated African elephants, monitoring their movement patterns in two South African reserves over a 57-month period post-release. The primary goal of the study was to establish whether the flexibility and adaptability of movement behaviour of reintegrated elephants can be considered as one of the indicators of determining the success of such an operation. The second aim of our study was to investigate if the reintegrated elephants demonstrated an adaptability to their environment through their hourly, daily, and seasonal ranging patterns after a period of free roaming that exceeded 4 years. Our findings indicated that reintegrated elephants, much like their wild counterparts (movement based on literature), displayed notable seasonal and diurnal variations in key movement parameters, such as utilisation distribution areas and reserve utilization. These patterns changed over time, reflecting an adaptive shift in movement patterns after several years of free roaming. Notably, the trajectory of changes in movement parameters varied between herds, indicating unique adaptation responses, likely resulting from differences in the reintegration process (familiarity of reserve, season of release, presence of wild elephants). Although our study is constrained by the limited number of reintegrated herds available for analysis, it underscores the potential of captive elephants to successfully adapt to a free-living environment, emphasising the promising implications of reintegration initiatives.
摘要：
随着圈养大象管理挑战的升级，大象重返社会的研究成为一个关键的研究领域，主要解决动物福利的提高。“重返社会”一词是指将圈养大象恢复到自然系统的过程，允许他们在没有人为干预的情况下自由漫游。关于重返社会后的行为适应的研究相对较少，尽管南非各种围栏保护区的20多头大象重新融合。我们的研究集中在两群不同的重新整合的非洲象，在释放后的57个月内，监测它们在两个南非保护区中的移动模式。该研究的主要目标是确定是否可以将重新整合的大象的运动行为的灵活性和适应性视为确定此类手术成功与否的指标之一。我们研究的第二个目的是调查重新整合的大象是否通过每小时表现出对环境的适应性，daily,以及超过4年的自由漫游后的季节性变化模式。我们的研究结果表明，重新整合的大象，就像他们的野生同行(基于文学的运动)，关键运动参数显示出显著的季节性和昼夜变化，如利用分布区域和储备利用。这些模式随着时间的推移而改变，反映了经过几年的自由漫游后运动模式的适应性转变。值得注意的是,运动参数变化的轨迹在牧群之间变化，指示独特的适应反应，可能是由于重返社会过程中的差异(储备的熟悉程度，释放的季节，野生大象的存在)。尽管我们的研究受到可用于分析的重新整合牛群数量有限的限制，它强调了圈养大象成功适应自由生活环境的潜力，强调重返社会倡议的大有希望的影响。
