Pressekonferenz zur Elefantenhaltung im Zoo Schönbrunn

Wien, Cafe Landtmann, am 23. April 2002

es sprachen:

• Prof. Dr. Julian Bauer, Elefanten-Experte - ECO² TERRA Intl.
• Jürgen Faulmann, Verein gegen Tierfabriken – VGT
• Elisabeth Dravecz, For Animals
• Marion Löcker, Verein gegen Tierfabriken – VGT
• Sylvia Summerer, Int. Bund der Tierversuchsgegner - IBT

Informationen und Stellungnahmen

• "Wildtierzoo - Zuchthaus der traurigen Sklaven", Stellungnahme der österr. Tierschutzvereine VGT, IBT, For Animals und Prof. Dr. Bauer
• Deklaration des "Amboseli Elephant Research Project" zur Elefantenhaltung in Zirkussen
• Cynthia Moss, eine der führenden Elefantenforscherinnen, über Elefantenforschung

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Wildtierzoo – Zuchthaus der traurigen Sklaven

Elefantenkind Abu im Schönbrunner Zoo ein Jahr alt!
Tierrechtsorganisationen gegen Wildtiere in Gefangenschaft

Prof. Dr. Bauer und die Tierrechtsorganisationen "Internationaler Bund der Tierversuchsgegner", "For Animals" und "Verein gegen Tierfabriken" sprechen sich generell gegen die Haltung von Wildtieren in Gefangenschaft aus - gegen Nachzucht und Wildfänge. Bereits bestehende Zoos sollten lediglich nur mehr als Auffangstationen für beschlagnahmte Wildtiere aus Privat- oder Zirkushaltung dienen, da Wildtiere in Zirkus-Unternehmen ohnehin ab dem Jahr 2005 in Österreich verboten sind.

Am 25.April 2002 wird das Elefantenkind Abu 1 Jahr alt, gezeugt durch künstliche Besamung, weil der Zuchtbulle in Schönbrunn damals noch zu jung war - man in Schönbrunn aber schleunigst auf Nachwuchs aus war. Natürlich sind Elefanten-Babys Publikumsmagneten. Mittlerweile wird auch der Bulle Vater - auch Schönbrunn ist eben nur ein Zuchthaus, das seine Insassen um jeden Preis zu vermehren sucht. Auch der kleine Abu ist bereits verplant im Schönbrunner Zuchtprogramm.

Dr. Daphne Sheldrik, die weltberühmte Elefanten-Expertin, zu Sinnhaftigkeit von Zuchtprogrammen in Zoos: "Völliger Schwachsinn, denn erstens sind Zoos keine Orte in denen Elefanten leben und sich wohlfühlen können und das 'Überleben' eines Elefantenbestandes in einem Zoo mit Hilfe der künstlichen Befruchtung zu erzielen ist nicht nur ein Anachronismus sondern auch Tierquälerei, denn die meisten in Gefangenschaft geborenen Elefanten-Babies werden von ihren Müttern, die sehr wohl wissen, dass auch ein Zoo kein Platz für einen Elefanten ist, getötet. Das Ele-Baby muss in einem Zoo normalerweise sofort nach der Geburt von der Mutter getrennt und künstlich aufgezogen werden, um sein Überleben überhaupt sicherzustellen, während die Mutter unter ständiger Sedierung in einem separaten Gehege und in ihrem eigenen Trauma gefangengehalten wird."

Die Tierrechtsorganisationen haben Prof. Dr. Julian Bauer, den mit seinen Elefantenschutz-Programmen in afrikanischen Kriegs- und Krisengebieten bekannt gewordene Tropen-Ökologe direkt aus Afrika eingeladen. Prof. Bauer:" Die künstliche Besamung von Elefanten in Zoo, Zirkus oder hinter Zaun ist eine staatlich sanktionierte und vom Veterinär begangene Vergewaltigung eines versklavten Tieres, einem zusätzlich unter Ausnutzung der Unwissenheit der Zoo-Besucher aus den niedrigen Beweggründen der Geld- und Raffgier sowie pseudo-wissenschaftlicher Geltungssucht begangenen Verbrechen für das es keine Rechtfertigung gibt. Statt die Elefanten in freier Wildbahn und diese Lebensräume mit allen Mitteln zu schützen, werden nach wie vor Elefanten für die Gefangenschaftshaltung gefangen, können aber niemals artgerecht gehalten werden und werden dann noch künstlich vermehrt. Die Versklavung der Tiere wie die der Menschen muss enden."

Prof. Bauer: "Aber auch die Zoo-Besucher sind aufgerufen ihr Verhalten zu überdenken, denn nur solange es noch Menschen gibt, die sogar dafür bezahlen ein in Gefangenschaft gehaltenes Wildtier zu begaffen, wird es diese Wildtier-Quäl-Stationen und ihre meist selbst verhaltensgestörten Betreiber geben können."

Interessantes Detail: Der Kurier vom 22.4.02 schreibt, dass der kleine Elefant in Schönbrunn ab nächster Woche regelmäßig mit Bambusstöcken "erzogen" und zeitweilig angekettet werden soll.

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Deklaration des "Amboseli Elephant Research Project" zur Elefantenhaltung in Zirkussen

Ecoterra Intl. möchte die Vertreter der Medien über untenstehende Deklaration des "Amboseli Elephant Research Project" informieren.

Deklarationstext im englischen Original

DEKLARATION

Die Unterzeichner sind eine Gruppe von Elefanten-Forschern, die zusammenarbeitet um Elefanten zu studieren und ihren Schutz sowie ihr Wohlergehen zu fördern. Unsere Erfahrung umfasst zusammengenommen mehr als 200 Jahre Forschungsarbeit mit wildlebenden Elefanten in freier Wildbahn. Wir sind die anerkannten, führenden Fachleute auf diesem Gebiet.

Es ist unsere eindeutige Meinung, dass Elefanten nicht in Zirkusunternehmen genutzt werden sollten. Elefanten in freier Wildbahn ziehen über weite Strecken und legen täglich beträchtliche Entfernungen zurück. Sie sind intelligente, sehr soziale Tiere mit einem komplexen Kommunikations-System. Es gibt keine Art einer Gefangenschafts-Haltung, welche den Elefanten den Raum gewähren kann, den sie für ihre Bewegung brauchen oder der ihnen die Art der sozialen Stimulation oder Eindruckvielfalt bietet, die sie in freier Wildbahn erfahren. Eine Elefanten Familie in freier Wildbahn zu beobachten ist ein großartiges Erlebnis. Angeführt vom ältesten weiblichen Tier – der Matriarchin – ist die Familie durch Verwandtschaft, enge Beziehung, große Treue und Freundschaft in ihren Beziehungen untereinander fest verbunden.

Elefanten in Zirkusunternehmen werden gefangen gehalten und sind stundenlang angekettet, werden gekauft und verkauft, werden von ihren Lebensgefährten getrennt und häufig herumtransportiert. Kurzum sie werden als Objekte zur Befriedigung menschlicher Kurzweil behandelt.

Wir sind der Auffassung, dass solche intelligenten, sozial komplexen und lang lebenden Tiere mit Respekt und Verständnis behandelt werden müssen. Der einzig richtige Aufenthaltsort für einen Elefanten ist in der freien Wildbahn zusammen mit seinen Verwandten und Artgenossen. Die für einen gefangenen Elefanten völlig unnatürliche Existenz in einem Zirkus ist eine Travestie und die Fortsetzung einer solchen Praxis zu erlauben ist ungerechtfertigt und unethisch.

gezeichnet: The Amboseli Elephant Research Project

Unterzeichnende	Erfahrung mit Elefanten
Cynthia Moss, Direktor	33 Jahre
MitunterzeichnerInnen
Sandy J. Andelman	5 Jahre
Julian Bauer	24 Jahre
Harvey Croze	33 Jahre
Iain Douglas-Hamilton	36 Jahre
Phyllis C. Lee	19 Jahre
W. Keith Lindsay	25 Jahre
Hamisi Mutinda	11 Jahre
Joyce H. Poole	26 Jahre
Soila Sayialel	14 Jahre

 

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Cynthia Moss, eine der führenden Elefantenforscherinnen, über Elefantenforschung

Aus Anlaß der Pressekonferenz möchte Ecoterra Intl. den Vertretern der Medien gerne einige Hintergrundinformationen und Gedanken zur „Elefantenforschung“ darlegen, die von einer der bekanntesten Elefanten-Forscherinnen vor einem Jahr hier in Wien in einem Symposium dargelegt wurden.

Gesamter Redebeitrag im englischen Original

Übersetzter Auszug aus der Rede (Schlussfolgerung)

Damals in den 60er Jahren, als einige von uns ihre Forschungen begannen, dachten wir nicht so sehr über die Ethik dessen was wir taten nach. Ich erinnere mich daran, dass ich eine bestimmte Arbeit las, die mich sehr aufregte. Ein Wissenschaftler, der damals in Uganda arbeitete, war an der Reproduktionsbiologie der Elefanten interessiert und er verfasste einen Bericht über einen bestimmten weiblichen Elefanten. Er stellte fest das diese Elefantin in Hitze gekommen war und er folgte ihr und ihrem zweieinhalbjährigen Kalb über zwei Tage, in denen er all ihr Verhalten aufzeichnete. Am Ende der zwei Tage erschoss er sie und nahm ihr Eierstöcke und den Uterus und untersuchte diese. In der daraus folgenden Veröffentlichung sagte er aber nichts darüber, was aus dem Kalb wurde. Doch genau dieser Mann ist ein äußerst ethischer Mann. Er war es seinerzeit wohl ebenfalls aber er ist es heute ganz besonders, und ich zolle ihm und seiner Forschung höchsten Respekt. Doch es war eine andere Zeit damals. Er dachte nicht nach; Ich dachte nicht nach. Ich wusste in meinem Herzen dass da etwas völlig falsch war in dem was er getan hatte, aber ich konnte nicht ausdrücken in welcher Weise es selbst damals einfach falsch war. Heute kann ich es ausdrücken und ich meine die Verantwort und Verpflichtung zu haben eindeutig zu sagen, was und was nicht mit den Elefanten gemacht werden kann. Dies wird dazu führen dass ich mir einige Feinde schaffe, aber ich habe keine Angst. Wissen Sie, das ist einer der Vorteile alt und schrullig zu werden. Sie können (dann) Sachen sagen die andere Leute nicht glücklich machen.

Wie auch immer, ich denke, dass niemand, so wie ich, 30 Jahre mit der Beobachtung von Elefanten verbringen kann, und dabei zusehen kann wie Babies geboren wurden, wie sie heranwachsen und ihre eigenen Kinder haben, zu sehen wie Elefanten in völliger Freiheit im Amboseli leben und wie sie sich einfach all der guten Dinge des Lebens erfreuen – und sei es nur zu sehen wie sie albern oder ungestüm über eine Bodensenke rennen oder Schlammschlachten veranstalten. Sie können nicht einen wilden Elefanten in seiner natürlichen Umgebung bei dem beobachten, was wilde Elefanten eben so tun, und dann meinen nicht die Verpflichtung zu haben etwas darüber, wie Elefanten behandelt werden sollen, zu sagen.

Ich habe keine Angst zu sagen, dass Elefanten hochintelligent sind und dass sie vielschichtige und tiefe Empfindungen haben. Wir waren immer so vorsichtig mit dem was wir sagten und wollten nichts „vermenschlichen“, aber ich denke dass wir uns jetzt über diesen Stand hinausentwickelt haben. Elefanten haben bemerkenswert starke Beziehungen miteinander und diese werden an ihren Interaktionen deutlich, welche ihre starke Empfindungsfähigkeit erkennen lassen. Nachdem wir dies wissen, müssen wir endlich ernsthaft damit beginnen über das Wohl der Elefanten und vielleicht sogar über die Rechte der Elefanten nachdenken. Ich weiß dass dies nicht sehr populär ist, aber ich möchte gerne einige Änderungen in unserem Verhalten den Elefanten gegenüber und hauptsächlich in unseren Rechtfertigungen dazu sehen.

Ich höre immer: “es ist schon ok diesem oder jenem Elefanten eine bestimmte schmerzvolle Sache zuzufügen, weil es gut für die Wissenschaft ist; es ist schon ok diesen oder jenen Elefanten zu stören weil es für die Ausbildung von Menschen wichtig ist; es ist schon ok Elefanten in Gefangenschaft zu halten und über sie zu bestimmen, weil es der Unterhaltung dient oder weil es den Leuten Freude macht. Aber keines dieser Argumente kann für mich eine Geltung oder Gültigkeit haben. Ich werde nicht mehr länger hinnehmen, dass man solches weiterhin sagen kann. Ich werde damit jetzt an die Öffentlichkeit gehen und dafür kämpfen. Daher sollten einige von Ihnen da draußen gewarnt sein. Denn das wird es sein, dem ich den Rest meines Lebens widmen werde, sicherzustellen dass Elefanten mit Respekt und Würde behandelt werden.

Ich möchte dass Sie alle, Feldforscher wie auch Halter, darüber nachdenken, was Sie eigentlich tun. Ich sage nicht das der eine gut und der andere schlecht ist. Ich möchte einfach nur dass Sie darüber nachdenken, was Sie eigentlich tun und dass Sie sich selbst jedes Mal diese Fragen stellen, wenn Sie etwas tun, dass für einen Elefanten einen Eingriff, eine Störung, Dis-Stress oder Schmerzen bedeutet. Ist es wirklich notwendig? Und überprüfen Sie Ihre Begründung wirklich; sagen Sie nicht einfach „oh es ist doch gut für die Ausbildung“ oder „oh es ist gut für den Artenschutz“, nehmen Sie das was Sie tun genau unter die Lupe. Ich denke dass wir uns viel zu oft erlauben diese erprobten und wahren Begründungen zu benutzen, die ich selbst nicht mehr für erprobt und wahr halte.

Daher fordere ich eine Art Elefantenschutz Carta , die bestimmt was wir den Elefanten antun können und was nicht, und was die Lebensrechte der Elefanten sind. Ich bitte Sie mir zu helfen, denn ich glaube das dies die Zuhörerschaft ist, die mir helfen kann. Ich weiß, dass auch Ihnen Allen die Elefanten am Herzen liegen und daher bitte ich Sie um die Unterstützung meiner Kampagne für die ethische und rücksichtsvolle Behandlung der Elefanten. Ich möchte dass Sie sich für die Elefanten einsetzen.

Cynthia Moss
Nairobi

 

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Originaltext der Deklaration des "Amboseli Elephant Research Project"

Zur deutschen Übersetzung dieses Textes

Ecoterra Intl. wants to inform you about the following declaration of the "Amboseli Elephant Research Project":

Amboseli Elephant Research Project
P.O. Box 15135
Langata
Nairobi, Kenya

Tel. +254 2 89178;
Fax +254 2 890884

Declaration

To Whom It May Concern

We, the undersigned, form a group of elephant researchers working together to study elephants and promote their conservation and welfare. Our combined experience represents over 200 years of work with free-ranging, wild African elephants. We are the acknowledged leading experts in the field.

It is our considered opinion that elephants should not be used in circuses. Elephants in the wild roam over large areas and move considerable distances each day. They are intelligent, highly social animals with a complex system of communication. No captive situation can provide elephants with the space they need for movement or with the kind of social stimulation and complexity that they would experience in the wild. To watch an elephant family in the wild is a glorious experience. Led by the oldest female--the matriarch--the family is bonded by kinship, affiliation, experience, great loyalty and affection. Elephants in circuses are confined and chained for hours, are bought and sold, separated from companions, and frequently moved about. In short they are treated as objects of entertainment for humans.

We believe that such intelligent, socially complex and long-lived animals should be treated with respect and empathy. An elephant’s place is in the wild with its relatives and companions. The totally unnatural existence for captive elephants in a circus is a travesty and to allow this practice to continue is unjustified and unethical.

The Amboseli Elephant Research Project	Elephant Experience
Cynthia Moss, Director	33 years
Sandy J. Andelman	5 years
Julian Bauer	24 years
Harvey Croze	33 years
Iain Douglas-Hamilton	36 years
Phyllis C. Lee	19 years
W. Keith Lindsay	25 years
Hamisi Mutinda	11 years
Joyce H. Poole	26 years
Soila Sayialel	14 years

ECOTERRA Intl.
http://www.ecoterra.de
http://www.ecoterra.net
NAIROBI NODE
KENYA

 

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Originaltext des Vortrags von Cynthia Moss über Elefantenforschung

Zur deutschen Übersetzung der "Conclusion" (Schlussfolgerung)

On the occasion of the press conference in Vienna on 23rd of April 2002 ECOTERRA Intl. would like to provide the representatives of the media with some background information and thoughts about “Elephant Research”, which were issued about one year ago during a symposium here in Vienna by one of the most experienced and eldest elephant researchers, Cynthia Moss.

Elephant Research in Amboseli: - a perspective from 28 years

Cynthia J. Moss
Amboseli Elephant Research Project

Talk given on 9 June 2001 at the International Elephant and Rhino Research Symposium, VIENNA

Introduction

I have been studying elephants in Amboseli for the last 28 years, and I have been extraordinarily privileged to spend the best part of my life with the wonderful elephant population there. I feel very lucky to have lived with them and to have followed their lives for all these years. I also feel that I would like to give something back to them and to all elephants.

Today I would like to talk about research, as this is the topic of the conference, but I want to address two aspects of research: first, the scientific studies that have done in Amboseli over all these years; and second, some of the implications of that research.

History

I started my career with elephants back in 1968, 33 years ago, when I worked with Iain Douglas-Hamilton for eight months in Lake Manyara National Park in Tanzania. When Iain’s research was completed I moved to Nairobi, and from that point on all I wanted to do was my own study of elephants. It wasn’t easy to get one going, and it took me another four years to find support and a place where I could do my work.

I was looking for particular characteristics in the elephant population I was to study. From the very beginning I wanted to do long-term research on a relatively undisturbed population. What was happening in Africa in the early 1970s is that elephants were being highly disrupted. They were already being poached then, and they were also being confined to restricted, protected areas. For example, in Lake Manyara, the elephants had lost 75% of their range in the 50 years before Iain began his work. What I wanted was to study baseline behaviour, ecology, demography, and social organization of a population that was still relatively “natural” or undisturbed, and I found that in Amboseli and much more as well.

There are several reasons why Amboseli is such a good place to study elephants. Although the Park is small--it is only 150 square miles, 390 square kilometres--the area over which the elephants roam is large. It is about 3,500 square kilometres, and the elephants are unrestricted, which is unusual in most of Africa today. The Amboseli elephants move in and out of the Park in regular patterns, moving right down into Tanzania, way up north and to the east and west. When they leave the Park they are moving on old trails and routes that they have been using for at least four or five hundred years, as far back as we have oral history.

The Park is a dry season holding ground where animals come for water and food. Its lifeblood is Kilimanjaro which feeds the swamps, streams, and springs in Amboseli. It is the water which percolates down from the slopes underground and then wells up in Amboseli that creates this paradise for animals. There in the dry season great numbers of animals congregate, making it a marvellous place for tourists and for the animals themselves. There are zebras, wildebeest, gazelles, giraffes, buffaloes, lions, cheetahs, leopards, elephants, fabulous birds, the whole range. They are all packed into the Park in the dry season in astounding densities.

The Maasai

Along with these wild animals, and using the ecosystem in much the same way, are the Maasai with their domestic stock—cows, sheep, goats and donkeys. The Park used to be the centre of their range and only became a national park in 1974. Amboseli was a dry season refuge for the Maasai as well as the wildlife. Losing this part of their range has been difficult for them and a source of conflict, but finding ways for the Maasai to benefit from the Park continue to be sought. Without their cooperation there is no future for Amboseli for they are the key to why Amboseli is extraordinary.

In most areas of Africa land-use patterns have changed drastically so that where there was once savannah or forest, there is now agriculture or settlement. The Maasai in the Amboseli area are more or less nomadic pastoralists and pastoralism is not in direct conflict with wildlife. It is possible for elephants and Maasai people to live side by side. They have been doing so for many hundreds of years. They don’t necessarily love each other, but they tolerate each other. The Maasai can live with wildlife because they can share their range. An agriculturalist cannot under any circumstances live with elephants. The elephants will destroy and eat the crops. The Maasai have a different attitude and even admit that elephants help them in some ways. They explain that if there were no elephants in an area, it would revert to thick bush which is not good for herding cattle. There would be less grass and predators could more easily hide in the bushes. Elephants have been called “the architects of the savannah”. They keep the savannahs open, creating and maintaining those beautiful African landscapes that we love so much.

However, it’s not an altogether idyllic situation. The Maasai will spear elephants either in retaliation for livestock being killed or more seriously when a person is killed by an elephant, and they will simply kill large, dangerous wild animals to prove their bravery. We lose a number of elephants each year, but some years are worse than others. In a drought year when there is fierce competition for the remaining resources, upwards of 20 elephants might be speared, but in an average year or a high rainfall year there may be no elephants speared. The result is that the number of elephant deaths in Amboseli is small in comparison to what has happened in most of the rest of Africa. During the height of the poaching in the 1970s and 1980s Kenya alone lost 85% of its elephants. The continent lost over half of its elephants in the decade from 1979 to 1989. During the same period Amboseli’s elephant population grew from 480 in 1979 to 719 by the end of 1989. That was partly because of the Maasai, who don’t poach and don’t allow other tribes to come in to kill wildlife, and partly because of the presence of this research project. Obviously, I would rather not have any elephants speared, but Amboseli does not have gangs of poachers with AK47s mowing down dozens of animals in a day, nor does it have a management system that has a policy of culling several hundred elephants each year.

The Elephants

So what Amboseli had when I was looking for a study site, and what it still has, is a relatively undisturbed population with an age structure that has been influenced more by environmental pressures than by man-made pressures. In Amboseli the population is as intact as can be found in the savannahs. There are elephants ranging from newborn calves to animals in their early ‘60s. These are lucky elephants and it has always been my hope that the information we collect on this population can be used to help in the conservation of elephants throughout Africa.

From the very beginning I wanted the Amboseli Project to collect data on baseline elephant behaviour. Now I’m not saying this is the “only elephant behaviour”. Elephants are the most flexible animals I think you can find, and so you can’t say that because the elephants do something in Amboseli they do it everywhere else. They don’t, and they don’t even do it in Amboseli from year to year, but you can still get some basis of what a fairly unrestricted, unpoached, and intact age-structured population is doing.

An added bonus of my choosing Amboseli was that the elephants were already relatively habituated to vehicles. There had been tourism in Amboseli from the l950’s, and the elephants were used to vehicles, they trusted vehicles, and so I could drive up, switch my engine off, and just observe them. They just went on doing what they had been doing before I arrived. So my colleagues and I have the ideal conditions for behavioural research. We can be a fly on the wall as far as the elephants are concerned. We don’t want them to react to us. Many people ask, Do the elephants come up and greet you? Do you interact with them? I don’t. I try just to be there and have them go on doing whatever they were doing before I got there.

Another characteristic of the population I was looking for was that it be small enough to be able to recognize every elephant individually. For most of the study there have been less than 1000 elephants, a number that is easy to recognize. We have used the method pioneered by Douglas-Hamilton back in the 60s, that is, ear patterns. By 1978 the recognition file was complete, but we update it continuously.

The Research

My major work over the years has covered social organization, behaviour, and population demography. Elephants are very complex animals. What I have discovered in my study is that they have a multi-tiered social system. Iain Douglas-Hamilton showed that each family is matriarchal, and that they have special relationships with other families, which are probably kin. In my study I found even more layers of social relationships. Starting at the centre is the family unit, and radiating out from that is the bond group, which is two or more families that have a special relationship. The next tier is the clan, which is maybe ten or so families who share an area in the dry season, then there are subpopulations that space themselves out into the greater ecosystem, and finally the whole population, which includes the adult males as well as all the family groups. How they relate to each other within those tiers of social organization is totally fascinating and continues to intrigue me.

The other focus of my research is just coming to fruition in a paper that will be published in the next few months in the Journal of Zoology, namely 25 years of population demography. I don’t think there is another study like it, certainly not on elephants. I have been able to follow every individual with no interruptions for 28 years, recording their births, deaths, oestrous cycles, matings, age at first musth and cycles of musth, age at first reproduction, intercalf intervals, and more.

From the beginning it was always my wish to have other people join me on the Project to work on various topics. It wasn’t supposed to be a one-person enterprise. The first thing that was clear was that I desperately needed a second person to study the males because the males were so completely different from the females that it was necessary to treat them almost as two different species. First they are dimorphically different, with males weighing six or seven tons and standing maybe twelve feet at the shoulder, while the largest females are three tons and maybe eight feet at the shoulder. This dimorphic difference is a reflection of the social organization and mating strategies in African elephants and it raises many interesting questions. For instance, males actually grow their tusks faster in the last decade of life than they do at any other time. Why would they do this, what male-male competition is going on at that time that would make them grow tusks even faster between 50 and 60 year of age than they might at any other point? I remembered when I was working with Douglas-Hamilton that he also had questions. He didn’t know where males went for months at a time, and then they would suddenly appear and mixed with the families for a while and then they would be gone again. Their behaviour was a mystery.

In 1976, Joyce Poole joined the Project. She was an undergraduate at the time and 19 years old. I asked her to work on the bulls, and I think many of you know that her results have been very exciting and have opened up our eyes to the whole concept of musth in African elephants and what its role might be, as well as much more about male-male competition, aggression, and mating strategies.

Then in the late ‘70’s, a Canadian, Keith Lindsay, began his research with the Project. He did both a Masters and a Ph.D. over the next seven years on habitat use and feeding behaviour, which provided important information on elephant ecology in Amboseli. With his work we had a much better understanding of the needs of the elephants and their place in ecosystem.

In the early ‘80’s, Phyllis Lee, who is now a reader at Cambridge University, joined me. I had already been studying maternal behaviour and calf development, and we worked on that together and learned quite a bit about the first couple of years of an elephant calf’s life, and the behaviour of the mother to the calf, etc. But perhaps the results that were the most interesting were those on allomothering, that is, the behaviour of an individual who takes care of an calf that is not her own. We found that the role of female calves is extremely important in elephant families, in that these young females-- anything from two to three years old on up to about 10 years old--spend considerable time with small calves, watching over them and giving the mother time to rest and feed, which is just what a lactating mother needs. We found that those families who had multiple allomothers were significantly more successful at rearing calves than families with few or no allomothers.

In the mid ‘80’s, Sandy Andelman carried out a short study on female competition and cooperation. This a topic that fascinates me and needs much more study. I would like to understand more about how families space themselves, what kind of competition is going on for resources or matings, what levels of aggression and affiliation there are within and between families.

Also in the mid-80’s, Joyce returned to Amboseli and started a study of elephant communication. Her goal was to document the whole repertoire, that is, all the different vocalizations that elephants make. Around that same time, just as Joyce was starting, Katy Payne joined us for a couple of months. She had just discovered that elephants made sounds that were infrasonic from work she did at the Portland Zoo, and she came to Amboseli to find out whether infrasound also occurred in the wild. Not surprisingly, it did, and she went on to study elephant infrasound in southern Africa. In the meantime, Joyce continued to look not so much at the structure of the sounds or how far they went, but rather what the sounds mean, what were the elephants conveying to each other. She has studied this off and on now since the mid-80’s and is back to working on it almost full-time now. She is up to 70 different vocalizations with what appear to be 70 different meanings. It may turn out that some of those are overlapping, but that is where the analysis is at the moment. Elephants are extraordinarily vocal animals in the wild, and they do talk to each other a lot, and apparently say all sorts of interesting things, and I am greatly looking forward to the final results, although with elephants I have learned that nothing is ever final.

Also in the mid-80’s, Joyce and I started hiring and training Kenyan research assistants. This has been a great boon to the project, probably one of the most important things I have done in these 28 years. There are presently three research assistants, all woman from the area. Two of them are Maasai, and one of them is Kikuyu. They knew nothing about elephants and, in fact, were afraid of them, but they soon became totally passionate about their work and totally dedicated to elephant conservation. Soila Sayialel, who is now my Project Manager, has been with me for 15 years, and Norah Njiraini, who as our Training Coordinator teaches other African researchers how to study elephants, has been with me for 14 years, and the third, Katito Sayialel, has been with me for almost 10 years. They love their job, they love elephants, and they are just a tremendous asset to the project. If there is anything I might take pride in that I have done in all these years, it is giving them the opportunity to become the people they are. They do all the work, by the way. I, unfortunately, am not in the field that much, and they are the ones out there collecting data six days a week.

In l990 we started with our first Kenyan graduate student. This was a marvellous young woman named Kadzo Kangwana who came to us to do a Ph.D. at Cambridge University, having done her undergraduate degree at Oxford. She was looking for a research project, and so I asked her to study the relations between the Maasai and the elephants. Her work has given us many insights into Maasai attitudes, some of which are negative but some surprisingly positive. This knowledge has helped us with our negotiations with the Maasai.

After Kadzo completed her research, we took on another graduate student, Hamisi Mutinda, and he did a Masters on reproductive hormones and is just finishing up his Ph.D. on ranging behaviour, quite a different topic from his first one, but it was one I wanted some answers to. He’s been looking at how the elephants range over the whole ecosystem, what trails they use, and what decisions they make. He has tried to get at decision-making—where elephants go, who is in the lead, and who is determining the direction.

Also in the ‘90’s, Karen McComb, who is a lecturer at Sussex University, joined the project to carry out a study of communication and social relationships. She used playback experiments to ask the elephants questions, and this is why I find this research so exciting, to be able in some degree to get inside those brains of theirs. I had described elephant social organization, the multi-tiered system, the family units, bond groups, etc., but that was based on association patterns and geography. Karen was able to ask the elephants whether that meant anything to them, this structure that I had superimposed on them. She played calls of known females to known families with known females in them and recorded what happened. I’m happy to say the results supported my description. So far two papers from this work have been published. The first in Animal Behaviour shows that elephants have probably the largest social network of any land mammal. Each female knows at least 100 other females and can recognize their voices. That alone was fascinating, but then we just published a paper in Science in late April. This was on matriarchs as repositories of knowledge. Once again, this was done with playbacks, playing known calls to known families. We found that the families with older matriarchs, over 35 years old, responded much more consistently to the calls, and those families with the older matriarchs had significantly higher reproductive success than the ones that had younger matriarchs indicating that social knowledge has important consequences for elephants.

And now coming up to the present time, there is a major study on the genetic structure of the whole Amboseli population being carried out with Susan Alberts and Beth Archie from Duke University. We have been working on it for over a year now, collecting dung samples for DNA analysis, which seems to be working well after lots of trial and error and work in the lab on Beth’s part. The first results have just come out and they are intriguing and fascinating. After you have been with particular elephants for years and years and you get results like these, it is as if a window has been opened. It’s just so exciting to look down the list of matrilines and see who is related to whom. We’re collecting behavioural data along with DNA so that we can see whether relatedness influences social relations. Susan has received a substantial grant from NSF which means that this study will go on for another four years.

Conclusion

So that’s where we are in Amboseli today after 28 years. I’ve gone through all that research much too rapidly. There are things I didn’t have time to mention and I didn’t do justice to the studies I did mention. The important point to get across is that the Amboseli Elephant Research Project is still a very dynamic project, a very active project, it is not just petering out in any way at all. In fact, it gets better all the time and I will do my best to keep it going. Sadly, that is actually what I have to do in life these days--keep the project going, and that means being an administrator and a fundraiser. So while my assistants and my colleagues are in the field, I’m running around the world collecting money and running an office in Nairobi. I have recently started my own organization The African Elephant Conservation Trust to raise money for both operating expenses and an endowment. I am trying to raise $7 Million in order for the project to run on the interest, and so that if I get run over by a bus tomorrow the project will go on. With these things sometimes you are so much the point person and they think, Cynthia Moss is the Amboseli Project, but it isn’t just me at all. I have to be front person and do the fundraising, but if something happened to me, would the Project be able to go on? I have to assure that it will and to do that I have to put the funds in place.

My role continues to change. Not only am I running the Project and fund raising, but I'm turning my attention to what I think should be another aspect of research. We know that research results can be applied in many ways, practically in terms of conservation and in captive management. But I also think we should consider other ways that research can move to help elephants. I've spent 28 years with elephants and have benefited scientifically, professionally and personally, but for a long time I have felt that I have to give more back to them. I think we have to start looking at how we're treating elephants and I think that research should inform us on how we should treat elephants.

Back in the 1960s when some of us were starting our research, we didn't think so much of the ethics of what we were doing. I remember reading one particular paper which disturbed me a great deal. A scientist working in Uganda was interested in elephant reproduction and he wrote a paper about one female African elephant. He found this female in oestrus and followed her and her two-year-old calf for two days recording all her behaviour. At the end of the two days he shot and killed her and collected her ovaries and uterus and studied them. He didn't say in the paper what happened to her calf. Now that man happens to be an extremely ethical man. He probably was then as well but he is particularly so today and I have the utmost respect for him and for his science. But it was a different time then. He didn't think; I didn't think. I knew in my heart there was something very wrong in what he had done, but I couldn’t even articulate how it was wrong back then. I can articulate it now and I feel a responsibility and an obligation to articulate what I think should and shouldn't be done to elephants. This will probably cause me to make some enemies, but I'm not afraid. This is one of the nice things about getting old and crotchety, you see. You can start saying things that will make people unhappy.

Anyway I don't think anyone could spend 30 years watching elephants as I have, watching babies being born, watching them grow up and have their own babies, watching elephants in total freedom in Amboseli, just enjoying all those good things in life--being silly or floppy running across a pan, or mudwallowing. You can't watch a wild elephant in it's natural habitat doing what wild elephants should do and not feel an obligation to say something about the way elephants should be treated.

I’m not afraid to say that elephants are highly intelligent and that they have complex and deep emotions. We were always so careful about what we said, about anthropomorphizing, but I think we’ve moved beyond that now. Elephants have remarkably strong bonds with one another and those bonds are exhibited through their interactions, which in turn reveal intense emotions. Knowing this we have to start thinking seriously about elephant welfare and maybe even elephant rights. I know it's a very unpopular word, but I would like to see some changes in our attitudes towards elephants and mainly in our justifications. I'm always hearing: it's ok to do this painful thing to an elephant because it's good for science; it's ok o disturb this elephant because it's good for educating people; it's ok to confine and dominate these elephants because it's entertainment, people are going to enjoy it, but none of these justifications holds water with me any more. I'm not going to stand back and let people say that anymore. I'm going to come out and fight. So some of you out there be ready for it. Because this is what I'm going to devote the rest of my life to, making sure that elephants are treated with respect and dignity.

I want you to think about what you all do, what all of us do, field researchers as well as captive people. I'm not saying one person's bad and one person's good. I just want you to think about what you do and ask yourselves questions every time you're about to do something invasive and disturbing and stressful and painful to an elephant. Is this necessary and really, really examine your justification, don't just throw out, oh it's good for education, oh it's good for conservation, really examine what you're doing. I think we allow ourselves to use the tried and true justifications which I don't find tried and true anymore.

So I'm asking for a kind of Bill of Rights for elephants, of what we can and cannot do to elephants, and what they should have in life. I would ask you to help me, because I think this is the audience to help me. I know that you all care about elephants too and so I am asking you to join me in my campaign to make sure that elephants are treated ethically and with consideration. I want you to stand up for elephants.

Thank you.

Cynthia Moss