Our Mission

The African Elephant Research Unit was established at Knysna Elephant Park in September 2009. The objectives of African Elephant Research Unit are the following:

To start, the primary aim of African Elephant Research Unit will be to collect information on all the elephants based at Knysna Elephant Park. This includes the recording of biological, anatomical, veterinary, physiological, behavioural and dietary data for each individual animal in its care. These will be used to co-ordinate and assimilate multidisciplinary research on the behaviour, ecology, anatomy and physiology of these large mammals, as well as providing valuable information that may be used to improve the future management of captive elephants.

Captive elephants provide us with a valuable opportunity for participation in research and education programmes, often allowing for the collection of data not readily available from wild animals. The value of the Knysna Elephant Park elephants, from a research perspective, includes two main factors:

Research Initiatives

Research initiatives of the African Elephant Research Unit, will concentrate on, but not be limited to, the collection and assessment of base-line data, for each individual elephant, the ‘herd’ as a whole, as well as the park in general. It is anticipated that baseline data collection will fall into the following categories:

BEHAVIOUR / SOCIAL

Daily activity budgets are already underway for each individual elephant. During this monitoring of daily activity, the feeding of the elephant is monitored, the area of the park in which the elephants are moving; and the animals with which they are interacting is carefully recorded. This is viewed as long-term study to investigate possible seasonal influences. It is also important to identify trends in behaviour between elephants, between elephant and handler and between elephants and guests. These data are crucial in order to evaluate management and to help predict future animal behaviour; as well as correlating activity and behaviour to medical, reproductive and other biological and/or environmental factors.

DIET AND NUTRITION
Elephants at Knysna Elephant Park eat a variety of plants, fruit, vegetables and pellet food. Dietary studies conducted at the Park will attempt to assess and monitor the nutritional status of the animals. Their diet and feeding patterns will be assessed in relation to season, distribution and preferred grazing areas and vegetation types. Observations will attempt to identify preferred species in the field, monitor quantities of food being fed to the animals by tourists and the amount of browse (Acacia spp.) being offered to the elephants. The age and sex composition of our ‘herd’ will also provide information on how diet changes with age and reproductive condition.

ANATOMY
In order to accurately monitor growth and development, as well as nutritional condition and overall health of the Knysna Elephant Park elephants, measurements of morphological condition will be implemented on a regular basis. These will include height, length, girth, foot diameter and tusk development. Weight measurements will be attempted for the smaller animals.

PHYSIOLOGY
Physiological assessments of the elephants will be conducted using blood, urine and dung samples. African Elephant Research Unit will aim to implement regular sampling for as many elephants as possible, depending on training protocols. Standard blood tests are vital for investigating not only the overall health of the animal but also the relationship between physiology and diet, age, sex and reproductive condition. Hormonal analyses will offer an indication of reproductive activity and how it develops with age in our elephants; and how it compares to other populations. The endocrinology data will also be assed in terms of behaviour and social data and to investigate further behavioural changes associated with changes in reproductive status.

MONITORING OF ‘STRESS’
The identification and monitoring of factors, which cause stress is a vital part of any captive animal management programme. Concentrations of known stress metabolites will be monitored in the blood, urine and/or dung. Regular samples will assess stress levels in park’s elephants, but, in correlation with all other data collected, will also facilitate the identification of potential stressors, both natural and artificial.  Regular monitoring of heart rates, in relation to age, sex, activity levels and environmental factors will also play an important role in assessing levels of stress in our elephants.

TOURISM
Due to the nature of activities at Knysna Elephant Park, the elephants at this facility are exposed to thousands of visitors each month. The African Elephant Research Unit will aim to identify any influences these people-elephant interactions may have on the animals – both positive and negative. By guiding management through science, the African Elephant Research Unit hopes to optimise the relationships between elephants and tourists, for the benefit of both. Data recorded for this part of the study include number of visitors, number of elephant rides, nature of elephant/tourist interactions and response of elephant to interaction. By correlating these data with individual behaviour and physiology we can better assess the inter-relationship between humans visiting the park and elephant inhabitants.

ENVIRONMENTAL
All base-line data collected cannot be assessed accurately without taking environmental influences into account. To this end, environmental data for Knysna Elephant Park will be recorded on a daily basis. This includes temperature, rainfall, wind speed and direction and cloud cover. In order to fully assess the dietary and distribution data, a botanical survey of Knysna Elephant Park will also be conducted. This will identify plant species in the park, their distribution and abundance and will give insight into the reasons for ‘preferred’ grazing areas.

Future Research Projects / Fields of Study

• Communication of elephants
• Chemical communication
  
• Composition of temporal gland secretions in relation to age, sex, behaviour. Identification and influence of potential stressors.
  
• Learning and behaviour enrichment
  
• Pregnancy and parturition
  
• Maternal behaviour, calf development, allo-mothering

Data collected by the African Elephant Research Unit and its research partners will form an important part of the Knysna Elephant Park management and education programmes. We hope that, through its activities, the African Elephant Research Unit can offer valuable insight into the lives of the Knysna Elephant Park elephants and provide information that may be used to improve and upgrade the management of captive elephants.

Sampling and data collection will be implemented and standardised, first at the Knysna Elephant Park facility. Following this, there are opportunities for us to expand the research programme to include other captive elephant institutions, which will allow us to include and compare a larger number of animals, in a wider variety of habitats. To this end, we hope that the African Elephant Research Unit’s research may provide data and information useful for elephant facilities throughout South Africa and the world; and potentially wild elephant populations.

How can you get involved?

For us to make the most of the resources, which our elephants present us with, we would like to take this opportunity to invite you to participate in our research. There are a number of ways in which you can do this:

• You can become a volunteer at Knysna Elephant Park and help out in a number of ways
• If you are a University student and would like to do an internship or a short term project with us, please contact us with a few details and we can organise for you to join the African Elephant Research Unit
• Partnership (Universities, Laboratories, Zoos)…If you would like to partner with the African Elephant Research Unit for the purposes of providing students with projects, generating data for comparative purposes and/or sharing skills and information, please contact us – we would love to hear from you

The availability of a captive herd such as the one at Knysna Elephant Park offers opportunities for research not easily found elsewhere. Every attempt should be made to use this factor to its best advantage. Factors which make our elephants invaluable to the setting up of research proposals include:

• Nine trained elephants in a controlled free-range environment
• Known age-sex composition of the herd
• Elephants can be observed 24 hours a day
• Dietary intake directly observed
• Hands – on
• Samples for physiological analysis readily available
• Potential for long-term studies
• Future access to elephants in other facilities for comparative purposes