Handler familiarity helps to improve working performance during novel situations in semi-captive Asian elephants.

ABSTRACT: Working animals spend hours each day in close contact with humans and require training to understand commands and fulfil specific tasks. However, factors driving cooperation between humans and animals are still unclear, and novel situations may present challenges that have been little-studied to-date. We investigated factors driving cooperation between humans and animals in a working context through behavioural experiments with 52 working semi-captive Asian elephants. Human-managed Asian elephants constitute approximately a third of the remaining Asian elephants in the world, the majority of which live in their range countries working alongside traditional handlers. We investigated how the familiarity and experience of the handler as well as the elephant's age and sex affected their respon

SUBMITTER: Liehrmann O 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8322261 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature