The nocturnal behaviour of African elephants (Loxodonta africana) in Aalborg Zoo and how changes in the environment affect them

Abstract

Elephants’ nocturnal behaviours are an important part of their welfare in captivity. For this reason, this study investigates whether the nocturnal behaviour of three African elephants’ (Loxodonta africana) in Aalborg Zoo is affected when exposed to different conditions and if they are affected differently.  Camera footage was used to log the elephants’ behaviours at night during a control period and during two periods with different impacts, which consisted of six nights respectively. Every night, the elephants were captured on video from 8 pm to 8 am and the behaviours were subsequently logged every second following an ethogram containing seven behaviours. This study was not able to show an effect (p > 0.05) on the elephants’ nocturnal behaviour related to an increase in visitor activity during the Autumn holiday. However, a significant increase in the duration of the sway behaviour was found after the shift from daylight saving time to standard time. This study also found that the elephants show individual norms within the behaviours such as interaction with food and abnormal behaviours. The lack of statistical evidence for changes in nocturnal behaviour related to visitor activity, may be due to other external factors influencing the nocturnal behaviour of the elephants. Swaying behaviour was affected by the shift to standard time of all three elephants. Individual differences in nocturnal behaviours indicate that the three elephants have different animal personalities.