Frequently Asked Questions About Elephants Jeheskel Shoshani
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ELEPHANT RIDING: the FACTS the Asian Elephant Is a Critically
ELEPHANT RIDING: THE FACTS (Prepared by Belynda Zolotto) The Asian Elephant is a critically endangered species, facing a very high risk of extinction. For the Thai Asian Elephant, the primary cause of this is habitat loss. The forests and grasslands needed to support a population of elephants have been disseminated by human activity and simply no longer exist. Domesticated elephants are the answer to creating a sustainable future for Thai elephants but providing a supportive environment for elephants in an elephant village or camp/centre requires money. For the Royal Elephant Kraal Village, like other such dedicated, protective centres, tourism is an important source of income. Providing an ethical and humane riding experience for visitors is critical if their programs are to be continued in the long term. Recently claims have been circulating on the internet and media, maintaining that this practice is damaging for the elephants, even cruel. The Royal Elephant Kraal Village (the Kraal) strongly disputes this assertion and this article sets out some of the facts, and the maths, to demonstrate that elephants are well able to easily carry the weight of humans on their backs. The Kraal has gone to great lengths to ensure that the elephants in its care are well-treated, that their participation in the riding program is beneficial and that the equipment used for rides is well designed and comfortable for the elephant. The emotive claims against the practice liken the experience of carrying people on the elephant’s back to a human carrying a 50 pound backpack for nine hours a day and purport that it will lead to permanent spinal injuries.1 Instead of making exaggerated comparisons between the human experience and that of animals in order to appeal to people’s emotions, always a risky exercise, let’s look at the facts. -
Open Thesis Final V2.Pdf
The Pennsylvania State University The Graduate School Department of the Geosciences TAXONOMIC AND ECOLOGIC IMPLICATIONS OF MAMMOTH MOLAR MORPHOLOGY AS MEASURED VIA COMPUTED TOMOGRAPHY A Thesis in Geosciences by Gregory J Smith 2015 Gregory J Smith Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Science August 2015 ii The thesis of Gregory J Smith was reviewed and approved* by the following: Russell W. Graham EMS Museum Director and Professor of the Geosciences Thesis Advisor Mark Patzkowsky Professor of the Geosciences Eric Post Director of the Polar Center and Professor of Biology Timothy Ryan Associate Professor of Anthropology and Information Sciences and Technology Michael Arthur Professor of the Geosciences Interim Associate Head for Graduate Programs and Research *Signatures are on file in the Graduate School iii ABSTRACT Two Late Pleistocene species of Mammuthus, M. columbi and M. primigenius, prove difficult to identify on the basis of their third molar (M3) morphology alone due to the effects of dental wear. A newly-erupted, relatively unworn M3 exhibits drastically different characters than that tooth would after a lifetime of wear. On a highly-worn molar, the lophs that comprise the occlusal surface are more broadly spaced and the enamel ridges thicken in comparison to these respective characters on an unworn molar. Since Mammuthus taxonomy depends on the lamellar frequency (# of lophs/decimeter of occlusal surface) and enamel thickness of the third molar, given the effects of wear it becomes apparent that these taxonomic characters are variable throughout the tooth’s life. Therefore, employing static taxonomic identifications that are based on dynamic attributes is a fundamentally flawed practice. -
Elephant Care Manual for Mahouts and Camp Managers
Elephant care manual for mahouts and camp managers 1 The designations and the presentation of material in this publication do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or area or of its frontiers or boundaries. The opinions expressed in this publication are those of the authors alone and do not imply any opinion whatsoever on the part of FAO. C FAO and FIO, 2005 ISBN: 974-7946-71-8 Edited by Richard C. Lair Drawings by Sirikorn Inkom Printed by XX For copies write to: Forest Resources Officer FAO Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific Maliwan Mansion Phra Atit Road, Bangkok 10200 Thailand E-mail: [email protected] 2 Elephant care manual for mahouts and camp managers Preecha Phangkum Richard C. Lair Taweepoke Angkawanith FOREST INDUSTRY ORGANIZATION MINISTRY OF NATURAL RESOURCES AND ENVIRONMENT FOOD AND AGRICULTURE ORGANISATION OF THE UNITED NATIONS REGIONAL OFFICE FOR ASIA AND THE PACIFIC Bangkok, 2005 3 Foreword The number of wild elephants in Thailand has declined steadily over the last three decades, mostly because of relentless habitat destruction, and experts estimate that at present only about 1,500 wild elephants remain. Today, better management by state agencies and increased public awareness are helping the wild elephant population to stabilize. In the middle of the nineteenth century, Thailand had as many as 100,000 domesticated elephants. The number of domesticated elephants started to decline about fifty years ago, as rapidly improving roads eroded the use of elephants in transportation — the most common work in the old days. -
1.1 První Chobotnatci 5 1.2 Plesielephantiformes 5 1.3 Elephantiformes 6 1.3.1 Mammutida 6 1.3.2 Elephantida 7 1.3.3 Elephantoidea 7 2
MASARYKOVA UNIVERZITA PŘÍRODOVĚDECKÁ FAKULTA ÚSTAV GEOLOGICKÝCH VĚD Jakub Březina Rešerše k bakalářské práci Využití mikrostruktur klů neogenních chobotnatců na příkladu rodu Zygolophodon Vedoucí práce: doc. Mgr. Martin Ivanov, Dr. Brno 2012 OBSAH 1. Současný pohled na evoluci chobotnatců 3 1.1 První chobotnatci 5 1.2 Plesielephantiformes 5 1.3 Elephantiformes 6 1.3.1 Mammutida 6 1.3.2 Elephantida 7 1.3.3 Elephantoidea 7 2. Kly chobotnatců a jejich mikrostruktura 9 2.1 Přírůstky v klech chobotnatců 11 2.1.1 Využití přírůstků v klech chobotnatců 11 2.2 Schregerův vzor 12 2.2.1 Stavba Schregerova vzoru 12 2.2.2 Využití Schregerova vzoru 12 2.3 Dentinové kanálky 15 3 Sedimenty s nálezy savců v okolí Mikulova 16 3.1 Baden 17 3.2 Pannon a Pont 18 1. Současný pohled na evoluci chobotnatců Současná systematika chobotnatců není kompletně odvozena od jejich fylogeneze, rekonstruované pomocí kladistických metod. Diskutované skupiny tak mnohdy nepředstavují monofyletické skupiny. Přestože jsou taxonomické kategorie matoucí (např. Laurin 2005), jsem do jisté míry nucen je používat. Některým skupinám úrovně stále přiřazeny nebyly a zde této skutečnosti není přisuzován žádný význam. V této rešerši jsem se zaměřil hlavně na poznatky, které následovaly po vydání knihy; The Proboscidea: Evolution and Paleoecology of Elephants and Their Relatives, od Shoshaniho a Tassyho (1996). Chobotnatci jsou součástí skupiny Tethytheria společně s anthracobunidy, sirénami a desmostylidy (Shoshani 1998; Shoshani & Tassy 1996; 2005; Gheerbrant & Tassy 2009). Základní klasifikace sestává ze dvou skupin. Ze skupiny Plesielephantiformes, do které patří čeledě Numidotheriidae, Barytheriidae a Deinotheridae a ze skupiny Elephantiformes, do které patří čeledě Palaeomastodontidae, Phiomiidae, Mammutida, Gomphotheriidae, tetralofodontní gomfotéria, Stegodontidae a Elephantidae (Shoshani & Marchant 2001; Shoshani & Tassy 2005; Gheerbrant & Tassy 2009). -
Zeitschrift Für Säugetierkunde)
ZOBODAT - www.zobodat.at Zoologisch-Botanische Datenbank/Zoological-Botanical Database Digitale Literatur/Digital Literature Zeitschrift/Journal: Mammalian Biology (früher Zeitschrift für Säugetierkunde) Jahr/Year: 1993 Band/Volume: 58 Autor(en)/Author(s): Court Nick Artikel/Article: A dental peculiarity in Numidotherium kohlense: evidence of feeding behaviour in a primitive proboscidae 194-196 © Biodiversity Heritage Library, http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/ Z. Säugetierkunde 58 (1993) 194-196 © 1993 Verlag Paul Parey, Hamburg und Berlin ISSN 0044-3468 A dental peculiarity in Numidotherium koholense: evidence of feeding behaviour in a primitive proboscidean By N. Court Sedgwick Museum, Department of Barth Sciences, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, U.K. Receipt of Ms. 19. 9. 1991 Acceptance of Ms. 27. 12. 1992 The fossil proboscidean, Numidotherium koholense is known only from the Palaeogene of Algeria (Mahboubi et al. 1984). Abundant remains of this tapir-sized mammal have been recovered from a single locality at El Kohol in Eocene deposits of the Southern Atlas of Algeria (see Mahboubi et al. 1986 for site details). The late Early Eocene age ascribed to this locaHty renders Numidotherium the oldest unequivocal representative of the order Proboscidea yet known. Material includes numerous isolated teeth, jaws and skulls, in addition to postcranial elements. Although Numidotherium is morphologically well documented (Mahboubi et al. 1986) and has been included in recent phylogenetic treatments of the order (Tassy 1990), as yet nothing is known of numidothere life habits or autecology. I 1 Fig. 1. Outline drawing of right mandibular ramus of Numidotherium koholense in lateral view. Note the long diastema and the way in which the alveolar border in front of P2 descends steeply to expose the anterior root (arrow). -
Elephant Ivory, Zoos, and Extinction in the Age of Imperialism
East and West This enduring fascination with elephants turned their bodies into colonial trophies, dead or alive. While captive elephants were the hallmarks of European zoological collections, ivory RESEARCH TOPICS became a luxurious commodity and an expression of wealth. At the turn of the twentieth century, patterns of ivory consumption were closely connected to the growing middle-class in Europe and the United States. As a status symbol ivory signaled elevation in social rank, N°63 especially for those whose belonging to European culture or even whiteness was in doubt. Thus, recording consumer desire for ivory in Eastern Europe, a region that, on the one hand, largely “missed out” on securing its own African or Asian colonies, but one that nevertheless nurtured colonial longings, reveals close links between social constructions of race, colonial commerce, and animal bodies. For the re- gion caught between the constructions of “progressive Elephant Ivory, Zoos, and West” and “backwards East,” the elephant body served as a material link between the mystical Orient and the Extinction in the Age of colonial Empire, and helped to measure the differenc- es of savagery and civilization. Imperialism (1870s–1940s) 04 A pair of porcelain perfume bottles placed As part of Department III’s research theme “The Body by Marianna Szczygielska on an ivory stand. First half of the 19th century. of Animals,” this project offers a unique insight into JULY 2019 Source: RDW MIC, Virtual Małopolska project. a physical presence of colonial imperialism in an area without overseas colonies. Tracing elephant lives, deaths, and afterlives, all entwined with stories of their keepers, trainers and veterinarians, uncovers a variety of scientific practices and technologies behind the exotic animal trade. -
Mighty War Elephants the Toy Soldier Museum’S James H
FEATURE Mighty War Elephants The Toy Soldier Museum’s James H. Hillestad traces the history of ponderous and powerful pachyderms in warfare while providing a peek at some awe-inspiring AeroArt portrayals of the mammoth beasts in miniature Text: James H. Hillestad Photos: Tor Johnson and James H. Hillestad t is believed that the first military probably among the first confrontations savannah cousins, about the size of the application of elephants dates from Europeans ever had with war elephants. Asian elephant. The African savannah I around 1100 B.C. in India. As weapons of warfare, elephants elephant proved to be too difficult to From Asia, the use of war elephants were used mainly in charges. A charging tame for military purposes, so it was migrated to the Persian Empire, elephant was formidable in combat, never widely used. where they were used in a number reaching speeds of up to 20 mph and, War elephants were exclusively of campaigns. The Persians’ Battle of unlike horse cavalry, not easily stopped male. Faster and more aggressive than Gaugamela (331 B.C.), fought against by an infantry line equipped with spears. females, they were also taller, heavier Greece’s Alexander the Great, was The elephant’s power was based on and stronger -- and most importantly, pure brute force. It would crash into an the long tusks of the males were enemy line, trampling men with feet 19 decisive in battle. Further, it was found inches in diameter and swinging mighty that female elephants do not have the tusks up to 10 feet long. Cavalry was not temperament for fighting and so they safe either because horses, unaccustomed were rarely used in battle. -
Review of Human-Elephant FINAL Reduced 01.Cdr
Prithiviraj Fernando, M. Ananda Kumar, A. Christy Williams, Eric Wikramanayake, Tariq Aziz, Sameer M. Singh WORLD BANK-WWF ALLIANCE FOR FOREST CONSERVATION & SUSTAINABLE USE Review of Human-Elephant Conflict Mitigation Measures Practiced in South Asia (AREAS Technical Support Document Submitted to World Bank) Prithiviraj Fernando, M. Ananda Kumar, A. Christy Williams, Eric Wikramanayake, Tariq Aziz, Sameer M. Singh Published in 2008 by WWF - World Wide Fund for Nature. Any reproduction in full or in part of this publication must mention the title and credit the above mentioned publisher as the copyright owner. © text and graphics: 2008 WWF. All rights reserved. Photographs by authors as credited. CONTENTS Preamble 1-2 LIST OF TECHNIQUES Problem Animal Removal 28-33 Traditional Crop Protection 3-7 Capture and domestication Capture and semi-wild management Crop guarding Elimination Noise and Throwing Things Fire Compensation & Insurance 34-35 Supplements to traditional crop protection Land-Use Planning 36-38 Alarms Providing benefits from conservation to Repellants Local communities Organized Crop Protection 8-11 Recommendations 39 Guard teams, 40-43 Vehicle patrols, References Cited Koonkies Literature Cited 44-45 Elephant Barriers 12-18 Physical FORMAT FOR Wire fences EACH TECHNIQUE Log and stone fences Technique Ditches Applicable scale Biological fences Objective Psychological Description of technique Electric fences Positive effects Cleared boundaries and simple demarcation of fields People Elephants Buffer Crops & Unpalatable Crops 19-20 Negative effects People Supplementary Feeding 21-22 Elephants Translocation 23-27 Future needs Chemical immobilization and transport In-country applications Elephant drives Sri Lanka PREAMBLE ew wild species evoke as much attention and varied emotions from humans as elephants. -
Elephant Notes and News H
Elephant Volume 2 | Issue 3 Article 11 12-20-1987 Elephant Notes and News H. P. Davis J. Shoshani S. L. Shoshani Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.wayne.edu/elephant Recommended Citation Davis, H. P., Shoshani, J., & Shoshani, S. L. (1987). Elephant Notes and News. Elephant, 2(3), 76-99. Doi: 10.22237/elephant/ 1521732119 This Elephant Notes and News is brought to you for free and open access by the Open Access Journals at DigitalCommons@WayneState. It has been accepted for inclusion in Elephant by an authorized editor of DigitalCommons@WayneState. 76 ELEPHANT Vol. 2, No. 3 ELEPHANT NOTES AND NEWS compiled by H. P. Davis, J. Shoshani, and S. L. Shoshani Contents: "ELEPHANT", the official title Elephant review Membership list, dues, and cards Elephantophilist Correspondence with children Poisonous potato skins The Asian Elephant SSP of the AAZPA "Elephant" superstitions Ban-the-ivory campaign V Ivory from Ebla Archaeological Site The African Ele-Fund "Elmer" and "Shelton" Mount Elgon elephants Elephant potpourri Swissair Gazette A request for information SPECIES and REF Elephant Room at the AMNH Conservation endeavors Mellet's tissue salvage Symposium on Proboscidea Redmond's tour Eighth Annual Elephant Workshop EIG at ASM Elephant population surveys Obituaries Elephant talk Missing members Milk formula for baby elephants ERRATA Zoo review "ELEPHANT", the official title of our publication The article on Ahmed the elephant (by J. Shoshani, J. Hillman, and J. Walcek) in this issue, discusses in brief the sequence of events leading to the choice and the reason we chose the title "ELEPHANT" as the official name for the publication of the Elephant Interest Group. -
Filling a Gap in the Proboscidean Fossil Record: a New Genus from The
Filling a gap in the proboscidean fossil record: a new genus from the Lutetian of Senegal Rodolphe Tabuce, Raphaël Sarr, Sylvain Adnet, Renaud Lebrun, Fabrice Lihoreau, Jeremy Martin, Bernard Sambou, Mustapha Thiam, Lionel Hautier To cite this version: Rodolphe Tabuce, Raphaël Sarr, Sylvain Adnet, Renaud Lebrun, Fabrice Lihoreau, et al.. Filling a gap in the proboscidean fossil record: a new genus from the Lutetian of Senegal. Journal of Paleontology, Paleontological Society, 2019, pp.1-9. 10.1017/jpa.2019.98. hal-02408861 HAL Id: hal-02408861 https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-02408861 Submitted on 8 Dec 2020 HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci- destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents entific research documents, whether they are pub- scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, lished or not. The documents may come from émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de teaching and research institutions in France or recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires abroad, or from public or private research centers. publics ou privés. 1 Filling a gap in the proboscidean fossil record: a new genus from 2 the Lutetian of Senegal 3 4 Rodolphe Tabuce1, Raphaël Sarr2, Sylvain Adnet1, Renaud Lebrun1, Fabrice Lihoreau1, Jeremy 5 E. Martin2, Bernard Sambou3, Mustapha Thiam3, and Lionel Hautier1 6 7 1Institut des Sciences de l’Evolution, UMR5554, CNRS, IRD, EPHE, Université de 8 Montpellier, Montpellier, France <[email protected]> 9 <[email protected]> <[email protected]> 10 <[email protected]> <[email protected] > 11 2Univ. -
The International Elephant Foundation Strategy In
INTERNATIONAL ELEPHANT FOUNDATION STRATEGY IN SUPPORT OF ASIAN ELEPHANT CONSERVATION The International Elephant Foundation Strategy in Support of Asian Elephant Conservation is the result of the International Elephant Foundation (IEF) facilitated workshop of technical representatives from U.S. Asian elephant facilities with expertise conserving Asian elephants in human care, and other U.S. representatives with expertise and experience conserving Asian elephants in range countries. The goal of this Action Plan is to enhance and conserve Asian elephant populations in the wild. Mission Statement The International Elephant Foundation Strategy in Support of Asian Elephant Conservation provides a more coordinated Asian elephant conservation strategy for U.S. Asian elephant facilities focusing on the expertise and experience of the U.S. elephant management community. Vision Statement This strategy identifies and describes those specific components of in situ Asian elephant conservation where there is a direct link to ex situ Asian elephant expertise, and identifies suggested management actions. With a priority focused list of actions, the U.S. elephant management community can maximize limited resources, encourage coordination and collaboration, and further encourage increased participation resulting in a more coordinated approach to maximize conservation activities. 1. Background Asian elephants were historically found from West Asia along the Iranian coast into the Indian subcontinent, and eastward into Southeast Asia and parts of China. Formerly ranging over three and a half million square miles, the Asian elephant is now extinct in West Asia, Java, and most of China, and survives in isolated populations scattered across remaining grassland and tropical forest habitats in thirteen Asian countries. Less than 30% of the entire extant range is within protected areas, and many protected areas afford little protection for elephants or their habitat. -
Concepts in the Care and Welfare of Captive Elephants J
REVIEW: ELEPHANTS CONCEPTS IN CARE AND WELFARE IN CAPTIVITY 63 Int. Zoo Yb. (2006) 40: 63–79 © The Zoological Society of London Concepts in the care and welfare of captive elephants J. VEASEY Woburn Safari Park, Woburn, Bedfordshire MK17 9QN, United Kingdom E-mail: [email protected] Zoos are duty bound to maintain a high standard of challenges facing zoos both from an welfare for all animals for which they are respons- ible. For elephants, this represents a greater chal- animal husbandry and a public perception lenge than for many other species; their sheer size, perspective. This document is not sophisticated social life, high level of intelligence and designed to be a formula for elephant wel- large behavioural repertoire, combined with their fare in captivity because there are still too origins in tropical and subtropical climates mean that replicating the physical, social and environ- many un-answered questions, rather it is mental requirements needed for a high standard of intended as a discussion of some of the welfare in captivity is a significant challenge. This is concepts relating to captive elephant wel- compounded by the difficulties in measuring welfare generally, and specifically for animals such as ele- fare, which it is hoped, might encourage phants within zoo environments. Evidence does exist people from a variety of viewpoints to relating to the longevity, reproductive success and consider elephant welfare in a different the health status of captive elephants which suggests way. I will not go into the issue of whether that their management is not at as high a standard as it is for many other species kept in zoos, and that or not elephants should be in captivity elephant welfare is likely to be compromised as a because this would be a not inconsider- result.