African Elephants (Loxodonta Africana) are kept all over the world in different kinds of enclosures. The enclosures are however often unsuitable for the Elephants. Research has shown that Elephants are nocturnal animals. Therefore it is important to keep Elephants occupied, for instance by using enrichments, also at the night. Five Elephants were studied at Borås djurpark, four Elephants in one room and one elephant, named Nyoka, in one room.

Elephants are hindgut fermenters, which affects their diurnal rhythm. To reach their nutrient demands, Elephants must eat almost constantly throughout the light part of the day. Sexual dimorphism may also affect their behavioral patterns. To understand the Elephants' normal living habits and foraging behaviour, we conducted a pre-study in the Mara Triangle, the north-western part of the Maasai Mara National Reserve. Each of four to six observers randomly chose a focal animal within the group of Elephants by the criteria that they were adults and visible.

Animals in zoos live in more barren environments than their conspecifics in nature. In nature, Elephants spend more than 75 % of the day foraging and have been observed lying down two hours during night. Stereotypies are common in many different species in zoos. Stereotypic behaviors may constitute up to 50 % of the daily activity budget of zoo Elephants. Modern zoos try to reduce stereotypic behaviors by means of environmental enrichment.

The quest to determine if non-human animals have emotional lives similar to man goes a long way back and is yet to result in a clear answer. The aim of this particular literature study is to determine whether or not the African elephant may host feelings of empathy and display altruistic behaviour. In search for an answer to this question, scientists have chosen to first evaluate the cognitive abilities of said species. They have done this through the testing of tool use, mirror self-recognition, memory and the ability to coordinate with another when performing a task etc. It is generally thought, that in order for complex emotion to exist within an individual, cognition, as an awareness of the self and others, must first be present.

In the Maasai Mara National Reserve the native people, the Maasai, have lived for a long time following their own traditions. Their traditional lifestyle is that of a nomadic people, leading their cattle to the best grazing. Sharing their land with a large variation of different animals, one of them being the African Elephant (Loxodonta africana), the Maasi people have since long adapted to a life side by side with these giants, as well as the fierce predators living in the area.The aim of this study is to determine whether the Maasai settlement, known as Boma, has any impact on the Elephants in the surrounding area. In order to conclude whether the bomas has an impact or not, observations of the wildlife were carried out. Observations were conducted in two different seasons, in December 2003 and May/June in 2004.

Training of zoo animals started when the first zoo opened in 1752. The difference between then and now is that from the beginning the zookeepers did not focus so much on animal welfare. Nowadays animal welfare is the most important thing in the training. Therefore, the zookeepers are training the animals mainly for veterinary purposes and activation. The training makes the animals less stresses during handling. When the zookeepers started to train Elephants they used unpleasant stimuli such as a whip when the elephant did something wrong.

The veterinary handling of wildlife, both in zoos and in the wild, commonly requires that the patients need to be captured and immobilized for examination or treatment. This emphasises the need for quick, on-site, laboratory equipment, in order to minimize the analysis time and thus the stress for the animal and also in order to increase the possibility of starting relevant treatment early on. The aim of this pilot study was to determine whether Serum Amyloid A (SAA) could be a measured in blood samples from bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus), Asian Elephants (Elephas maximus) and South American tapirs (Tapirus terrestris). SAA rises to its maximum about 24 hours after the introduction of an inflammatory agent in companion animals. This also correlates with the estimated time it takes for animals at Kolmården Wildlife Park to be examined and having blood samples collected after being observed as sick. The study also evaluated whether the Eurolyser SOLO, using a turbidometric immunoassay (TIA) developed for human diagnostics, could be used for such analysis. This pilot study was a retrospective analysis of SAA in convenience sampled frozen serum, collected from dolphins, Elephants and tapirs.