Evaluating the personality structure of semi-captive Asian elephants living in their natural habitat
نویسندگان
چکیده
Data on personality for long-lived, highly social wild mammals with high cognitive abilities are rare. We investigated the personality structure of Asian elephants (Elephas maximus) by using a large sample of semi-captive timber elephants in Myanmar. Data were collected during 2014-2017 using questionnaires, for which elephant riders (mahouts) rated 28 behavioural adjectives of elephants. Repeated questionnaires were obtained for each elephant from several raters whenever possible, resulting in 690 ratings of 150 female and 107 male elephants. We started by performing a confirmatory factor analysis to compare the fit of our data to a previously published captive elephant personality structure. Owing to a poor fit of this model to our data, we proceeded by performing explanatory factor analysis to determine the personality structure in our study population. This model suggested that personality in these elephants was manifested as three factors that we labelled as Attentiveness, Sociability and Aggressiveness. This structure did not differ between the sexes. These results provide the basis for future research on the link between personality and reproductive success in this endangered species and more generally, help to resolve the selective pressures on personalities in long-lived, highly social species.
منابع مشابه
Sex, Age and Height Determination in Asiatic Elephant (Elephas Maximus): A Case Study
The Asian or Asiatic elephant [1] is the only living species of the genus Elephas and is distributed in Southeast Asia from India in the west to Borneo in the east [2]. They are the largest living land animals in Asia and are primarily threatened by degradation, fragmentation loss of habitat and poaching [1]. Female captive elephants live beyond 60 years when kept in semi-natural surroundings, ...
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عنوان ژورنال:
دوره 5 شماره
صفحات -
تاریخ انتشار 2018