A1 Vertaisarvioitu alkuperäisartikkeli tieteellisessä lehdessä

Evaluating the personality structure of semi-captive Asian elephants living in their natural habitat




TekijätSeltmann M, Helle S, Adams MJ, Mar KU, Lahdenpera M

KustantajaThe Royal Society Publishing

Julkaisuvuosi2018

JournalRoyal Society Open Science

Tietokannassa oleva lehden nimiROYAL SOCIETY OPEN SCIENCE

Lehden akronyymiROY SOC OPEN SCI

Artikkelin numeroARTN 172026

Vuosikerta5

Numero2

Sivujen määrä13

ISSN2054-5703

DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.172026

Verkko-osoitehttp://rsos.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/royopensci/5/2/172026.full.pdf

Rinnakkaistallenteen osoitehttps://research.utu.fi/converis/portal/detail/Publication/30415078


Tiivistelmä
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.

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