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Jul 30, 2024 · One extensive study found that the average life span for zoo-born female elephants was 17 years, while females born in Amboseli National Park, Kenya lived an average of 56 years. And for Asian elephants, half of the ones born in zoos had passed by the age of 19, versus age 42 for those born in the wild.
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Wild elephants in protected areas of Africa and Asia live more than twice as long as those in European zoos, a new study has found.
Wild elephants in protected areas of Africa and Asia live more than twice as long as those in European zoos, a new study has found.
Animal welfare advocates have long clashed with zoo officials over concerns about the physical and mental health of elephants in captivity.
British and Canadian scientists who conducted the six-year study say their finding puts an end to that debate once and for all.
"We're worried that the whole system basically doesn't work and improving it is essential," said lead author Georgia Mason, a zoologist at the University of Guelph in Canada.
Obesity and stress are likely factors for the giant land mammals' early demise in captivity, she said.
Mason and colleagues looked at data from more than 4,500 wild and captive African and Asian elephants.
The data include elephants in European zoos, which house about half of the world's captive elephants; protected populations in Amboseli National Park in Kenya; and the Myanma Timber Enterprise in Myanmar (Burma), a government-run logging operation where Asian elephants are put to work.
Only the survival rates of females were analyzed because of their importance to future populations.
The findings show that captive elephants live considerably shorter lives.
For African elephants, the median life span is 17 years for zoo-born females, compared to 56 years in the Amboseli National Park population.
For Asian elephants, the results are "much more worrying because they are the rarer of the two species," Mason said.
To keep zoo elephants alive longer, the authors recommend routine screening for obesity (something that's done in U.S. captive elephant populations), as well as monitoring stress via a chemical known as interleukin-6.
Checking this biological marker, which shows that the body's immune system is battling sickness, would allow zoo officials to intervene before the animal is seriously ill, Mason said.
Robert Wiese, collections director at the San Diego Zoo in California, was not part of this study. He said making a comparison between the lifespan of captive and wild elephants may seem deceptively simple.
"There are just so many confounding issues, especially in small sample sizes [of] zoo animals, that it's hard to really separate and make sure you're comparing apples to apples," he said.
In 2004 Wiese co-authored a paper in the journal Zoo Biology showing the opposite of Mason's findings: that zoo elephants live as long as those in the wild.
He said that within the last decade accredited facilities have made huge improvements in the care of captive elephants by providing better nutrition to combat obesity, as well as environmental enrichment activities that reduce stress.
Nov 29, 2019 · Since the cows have a life expectancy of 40 years, it shortens their time for reproduction by more than 20 years, compared to wild individuals. Hence, the success rate of breeding Elephants in captivity is very low, with calves experiencing high mortality rates. For example, in 1998, 11 African elephants were born in zoos.
Dec 11, 2008 · The team's analysis revealed that African zoo elephants had life spans of about 17 years, whereas those in Amboseli lived 56 years. The median life span for Asian zoo elephants was nearly 19 years, but at MTE it was almost 42 years. Death rates for infant Asian elephants were especially high in zoos. Some of the zoo elephants' problems stem ...
Jun 8, 2022 · The average lifespan of an elephant in the wild is around 50 to 70 years. A recent study had the median lifespan of an African elephant at 56 years. However, some African elephants have been known to live for up to 80 years. Elephants are one of the longest-lived land animals. African elephants generally have a longer lifespan than Asian elephants.
Dec 12, 2008 · 00502 Nairobi, Kenya. Elephants have a much longer lifespan in the wild than in captivity, according to a new study from Science. The study, which compared female African elephants in Kenya's Amboseli National Park with those in zoos, found that the wild elephants lived three times as long on average, surviving to a median age of 56 years ...
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Life expectancy of an elephant in captivity can vary dramatically with the conditions in which they are kept, but some studies estimate that wild elephants live more than twice as long as those ...
