Citation

Author Website

http://www.lysannesnijders.com/

Thread

Liv Baker and Rebecca Winkler, Asian elephant rescue, rehabilitation and rewilding

Abstract

Baker & Winkler make a thought-provoking contribution to the discussion of what role captive animals could play in nature conservation and how we could get there through rewilding. There certainly is potential for captive Asian elephants, Elephas maximus, to become targets of conservation efforts, but there are also many questions: (1) How much do (behavioral) traits of captive-origin animals differ from their free conspecifics? (2) What predicts the likelihood and strength of social reintegration of captive animals into free populations? (3) How much of an Asian elephant’s functional role in the environment can captive animals still fulfill and how may this influence the evolutionary dynamics of Asian elephant populations? These questions are challenging, but also an opportunity to gain crucial knowledge and insight into the elephant’s ecological role, as well as our own.

Author Biography

Lysanne Snijders, behavioral ecologist, does research on animal social behavior and personality, including the potential implications of behavioral variation for conservation. Her study taxa (so far) comprise birds, fish and mammals. Website

DOI

10.51291/2377-7478.1562