Asian elephant (Elephas maximus) training success in an olfactory choice-test task

Abstract

Animal training is important for captive animal husbandry, welfare, enrichment and as a precursor to research. As a prerequisite to much experimental mammalian research, training is vital to facilitate subject understanding of complex cognitive and behavioural tasks. Elephants are an ideal system for examining indicators of training success as captive individuals routinely receive training for welfare reasons and for the safety of their careers. Here we present the results of a study to assess training success using eight female Asian elephants (Elephas maximus) from an eco-tourism lodge in Nepal. Elephant subjects participated in a series of four training stages comprised of multiple choice-test trials with different food items. We used two method validation tests to assess elephant choice when (T1) elephants could use olfaction to distinguish between baited and empty buckets and (T2) when olfactory cues were limited. We also assessed the latency for elephants to complete the trials over the course of the training stages. Our results from the method validation tasks showed that (T1) elephants could discriminate between baited and empty buckets unless (T2) olfactory cues were limited. Additionally, latency analyses demonstrate that elephants completed trials in significantly less time in the final training stage compared to the three subsequent stages. Based on these findings, we have identified clear and testable parameters for this task, which can be adapted or applied to other behavioural experimentation. The parameters used also give information about the sensory information involved in the task, which is relevant for ongoing research.