Elephant Voices

Category: 1. General News, 4. Welfare News, 8. Education | Date: Jun 22 2009 | By: elephantvoices

We have been quiet for a long time here on WildlifeDirect, mainly because we’re working so hard to get our new and substantially expanded www.elephantvoices.org back online. The new website is much more than a presentation of what we do - it is, and will increasingly be, a bank of information for anyone interested in elephants - their basic behavior, communication and welfare - in the wild and in captivity. As wild elephants are squeezed into smaller and smaller spaces there are a growing number of issues that affect their welfare and survival and we will be highlighting these. The website will be available in a week or so - we’ll inform you as soon as it goes online.

One of issues that has taken time and effort over many years, is Joyce’s participation as expert witness in the Ringling case. After 8 years of preparation (4 for Joyce) the case was finally heard in February. You will find a recent news update on KTNV ABC about the case here, and a link to Court Filings and Exhibits for the Ringling Bros. Elephant Abuse Case here. The verdict will be delivered by Judge Sullivan in a few weeks time.

Over the last four years we have also been working to convince the Norwegian government to ban the use of elephants in Norwegian circuses. One of three currently on the road, Circus Agora, decided to act before being told to and went animal-free this year. To show our support for the change we attended a performance when they were in town a couple of weeks ago. We were truly impressed by their program, and hope that more and more circuses around the world will follow suit. Circus Agora still has an elephant as a mascot - but this one has four legs and two bodies - one front and one back! Fair enough…

We wish all WD visitors and bloggers a great summer!

Joyce and Petter

Tags: agora, elephantvoices, elephantvoices.org, ringling

3 responses so far

Category: 1. General News, 4. Welfare News, Elephants in captivity | Date: Feb 03 2009 | By: elephantvoices

Joyce is currently in Washington DC to testify as expert witness in the legal case against Ringling Brothers Circus. She will be in court as the first witness tomorrow, Wednesday February 4th.  The courtroom is open to the public. The New York Times are among media that covers the suit - this article is from January 31st.

Tags: captivity, elephants, elephantvoices, ringling

2 responses so far

Category: 1. General News, 2. Field News Kenya, 5. Research | Date: Jan 18 2009 | By: elephantvoices

While Joyce is back in Norway preparing for her appearance in the legal case against Ringling Brothers Circus, and dealing with other pending elephant-issues, I continue my stay here in Nairobi. I am keeping busy working on our website update and our databases with IT-experts Mark and Fred, and trying to get our field vehicle in shape for the next few months of field work - a continuous job!

In the middle of next week I leave for Amboseli with Blake Murray. Over the next 10 weeks Blake is going to be assisting with ElephantVoices’ communication research by collecting acoustic recordings and video of some of the rarer calls. After a two week intro period with me he will be in the good hands of the very competent ATE research staff members, Norah Njiraini and Katito Sayialel.

Right now Blake is with Joyce in Norway being prepared for his time in Amboseli and picking up the recording equipment, datasheets and so on. Blake, who is currently a student at University of Utah, worked with us for a couple of months in 2003. You will be hearing more from us in the field.
Blake and Petter with the BBs in Amboseli in May 2003.

Based on normal rainfall patterns this time of the year usually represents a productive work period for collecting elephant vocalizations. But this year may be different. Due to the severe drought elephants are likely to be more subdued and just focused on getting enough to eat.

The short rains failed over most of Kenya, which is a troubling fact for millions of Kenyans. The political upheaval last year really had an impact on food production in the country and having the rains fail sets people even further back. Millions of Kenyans are currently faced with hunger - making human elephant conflict even more acute.

Despite the drought, I really look forward to being with the Amboseli elephants again, and we are all hoping for good rains in March and April.

Petter

Tags: amboseli, conservation, elephants, elephantvoices, research

6 responses so far

Category: 1. General News, 4. Welfare News, Elephants in captivity | Date: Jan 15 2009 | By: elephantvoices

We are once more getting close to the opening day of the legal case against Ringling Brothers Circus for their mistreatment of elephants, in which Joyce is one of the expert witnesses. The case has been mentioned in this blog on WildlifeDirect a few times, the first being February 2007. We hope that the case will go according to plan this time, and that it will be concluded with a positive outcome for elephants.

The legal case against Ringling Brothers has been followed by the media for many years - this news piece on CBS4 from 4 January 2006 is one of very many examples.

Cheers, Petter

2 responses so far

Category: 1. General News, Elephants in captivity | Date: Oct 25 2008 | By: elephantvoices

A few hours after Joyce arrived in Washington DC she got the message that the court case mentioned in last posting is delayed, and that it may be set to spring 2009. Flying from Norway to Washington and back in 3 days isn’t the best way to spend a long weekend - but not much to do…

5 responses so far

Category: 1. General News, Elephants in captivity | Date: Oct 24 2008 | By: elephantvoices

Having been prepared for 8 years the lawsuit against Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus and Feld Entertainment (Ringling Brothers) for violations of the U.S. Endangered Species Act, is finally going to trial starting Monday, 27 October, 2008. The suit is brought by the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, The Animal Welfare Institute, The Fund for Animals, The Animal Protection Institute, and a former Ringling Brothers’ employee, Tom Rider, who worked as a barn man with the elephants for two and a half years.

Joyce is an expert witness in the trial for the plaintiffs and is scheduled to testify on Monday. The case is being heard in federal court in Washington DC, in courtroom 24A, and is expected to last for approximately three weeks. The court proceedings are open to the public.

Tags: "elephant welfare", elephants, elephantvoices, poole

4 responses so far

Category: 1. General News, 4. Welfare News, Elephants in captivity | Date: Jul 23 2008 | By: elephantvoices

In August Joyce will travel to Washington DC to give her deposition in the case against Ringling Brothers for its treatment of elephants. Preparations have taken literally months of work. Joyce is also likely to go back in October when the court case takes place.

The basis for all of the contributions we make toward the interests of elephants is our long term studies of wild elephants. Some people try to argue that elephants held captive are different from wild elephants because they are domesticated. There are two uses of the term domesticated - one meaning “of the household” and the other a biological one. It is the biological one that is important and in this sense there is no such thing as domesticated elephants. All species of modern elephants are capable of being - and routinely have been - habituated and tamed by humans. They remain, nevertheless, wild animals.

The traditional bullhook used to control an elephant in Thailand (Photo credit Robert Poole). ElephantVoices’ standpoint is that this instrument contributes to misery for elephants held captive, for with it elephants are trained and controlled.

Tags: elephants, elephantvoices, welfare

No responses yet

Category: 4. Welfare News, Elephant Photos, Elephants in captivity | Date: Feb 07 2008 | By: admin

We invite you to visit the elephant elephant welfare section of ElephantVoices, which has been reorganized and improved over the last couple of weeks; new expansions will be uploaded over the course of the next few months.

Some may wonder what our elephant welfare work has to do with elephant communication or with elephant conservation, for that matter. We see this part of our work as an important application of our many years of study of elephant behavior. Decades of knowledge is useful for the advancement of science, yes, but we also want to ensure a better future for elephants, as individuals and as a species. To do that we need to educate people, to translate all the reams of data into something that the public can digest, be moved by and put into action. As acknowledged experts in the field we feel a need to speak out on their behalf.

Joyce returned from a five day trip to California on Tuesday, where she was meeting with donors and discussing a range of captive and wild elephant welfare issues. Over the next few days she will be finalising her expert witness testimony for a legal case against Ringling Brothers for the mistreatment of elephants.

Further analysis of the material collected during our playback experiments in Amboseli in December/January is also high on our to-do list.

Cheers, Petter and Joyce

Tags: africa, behavior, behaviour, bull, Bulls, elephants, elephantvoices, kenya

4 responses so far

Category: 1. General News, 4. Welfare News, Elephants in captivity | Date: Dec 10 2007 | By: admin

Hi this is Joyce again. It has been a very hectic period because we are trying to complete a year end newsletter for our friends and supporters, and also to prepare all of our playback stimulus “tapes” before we leave for the field early Friday 14th December. But I did promise to say something about the case against Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus for which I am an expert witness.

You may wonder why a scientist interested in elephant cognition, social behavior, communication and conservation gets involved in a legal case against a circus. The more that we learn about the social complexity and intelligence of elephants, the harder it is to ignore the mistreatment of them - wherever it occurs. My research and understanding of elephants in the wild has led me to advocate on behalf of both wild and captive elephants in many different forums and contexts on issues such as the ivory trade and culling, and the abuse and mistreatment of elephants used for “entertainment.”

One example of the advocacy work I do is my involvement as an expert witness in a lawsuit brought by the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, The Animal Welfare Institute, The Fund for Animals, The Animal Protection Institute, and a former Ringling Brothers’ employee, Tom Rider, who worked as a barn man with the elephants for two and a half years, against Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus and Feld Entertainment (Ringling Brothers) for violations of the U.S. Endangered Species Act.

The Asian elephants used by the circus are endangered species and the consortium argues that by chaining elephants and using bullhooks on them Ringling Brothers is violating U.S. law, which prohibits any conduct that “takes” an endangered species. A “take” constitutes acts that harm, wound, injure, harass, or kill an endangered species and applies to animals in captivity, as well as those in the wild. The lawsuit claims that Ringling Brothers “takes” Asian elephants through the forceful use of bullhooks and other instruments on the elephants and through the confinement and chaining of the elephants for long periods of time. The case is expected to go to trial in 2008.

I hope to get back online before we depart with an example of one of the MP3 files that we will be playing back to elephants….so check back in the next couple of days!

Trumpets!

Joyce

9 responses so far

Category: 1. General News | Date: Dec 05 2007 | By: admin

Hi out there,

I was traveling when the ElephanVoices blog was set up so this is my first entry. It is a very busy time for us because we are preparing for a month-long field trip to Amboseli and at the same time we have been on the road so much during November. Petter to Brazil and Denmark and me to South Africa and the United States. I was in Pretoria, South Africa, in early November as an invited expert to a meeting evaluating the ethics of capturing and training wild African elephant calves for elephant back safaris and circuses (more later). And then I was in Florida last week for an inspection of Ringling Brothers Circus as part of my expert witness report for a legal case against Ringling for their treatment of Asian elephants (more later).

Now that I am back in the office I am working hard to prepare our stimulus “tapes” (really MP3 files) for playback experiments that we plan to carry out in Amboseli. Playbacks (playing back the calls of elephants to elephants) allow you a window into the minds of animals. We have some ideas about the meanings of some of the elephant calls and we want to test whether we are correct in our supposition.

It is extremely dry in Amboseli because the long rains failed in March/April and its not looking good for the short rains either - they should have started in mid November. When is it extremely dry the elephants have very little energy and are less likely to respond to playbacks - so we will have to play it by ear, so to speak, and may postpone the experiments for another time. Nevertheless, there is always plenty to do in Amboseli. We have numerous meetings scheduled with our colleagues as well as with the students who are involved in various elephant studies there. And any spare moment we will be out observing elephants and recording their voices!

Trumpets, Joyce

3 responses so far