Elephant camps are among the most popular destinations in Thailand for tourists from many countries. A wide range of management strategies are used by these camps, which can have varied impacts on health and welfare of elephants. The objectives of this study were to examine relationships between FGM...
Riding elephants is one of the most controversial activities in the tourist industry, with concerns over whether load carrying is physically harmful. Here, we used an empirical approach to test how carrying loads up to 15% of the elephant’s body mass affected gait parameters....
How tourist camp activities affect individual elephant welfare is an important and highly debated topic. Saliva and fecal samples were collected monthly for 1 year from 44 female Asian elephants that participated in three programs (saddle-, bareback-, or no-riding), and analyzed for glucocorticoids (GC) and immunoglobulin A (IgA)....
There is considerable concern about the welfare of elephants used for education, research, and entertainment purposes in western zoos and Asian tourist camps, and whether captive venues meet the needs of these highly social and intelligent animals....