When an Elephant’s Behaviour Changes: Recognising Clinically Relevant Patterns

A change in an elephant’s behaviour can be easy to dismiss as temperament. 

It can also be easy to overinterpret. 

The clinically useful approach lies between the two: identify a sustained departure from the individual’s established behaviour, then investigate what may have changed around it. 

First establish what is normal for that elephant 

Behaviour becomes clinically informative when there is a reliable baseline for comparison. 

Useful observations include: 

• Feeding behaviour; 
• Movement and activity; 
• Resting; 
• Social interactions; 
• Response to routine; 
• Repetitive behaviour; 
• Interaction with handlers; 
• Changes in activity across the day. 

The aim is not to define a universal behavioural pattern for every elephant. It is to understand the individual well enough to recognise a meaningful change from its usual pattern. 

Research involving 144 captive Asian elephants in Tamil Nadu found differences in stereotypic behaviour between management systems. Stereotypies were more prevalent among elephants in temple and private systems than in the forest department system, while younger elephants and those with less access to conspecifics were more likely to exhibit stereotypic behaviour^[1]. 

For clinical observation, the important point is not to assign a single cause to a stereotypy. Changes in its frequency, duration, intensity or circumstances may instead provide a reason to look more closely at the elephant’s current health and management conditions. 

A behavioural change should trigger questions, not assumptions 

When a new repetitive or unusual behaviour appears, the next step is to look for changes in the elephant’s circumstances. 

Consider: 

• Has the social group changed? 
• Has access to other elephants changed? 
• Has chaining or confinement changed? 
• Has daily activity decreased? 
• Has feeding behaviour changed? 
• Has the daily routine changed? 
• Has conflict with another elephant occurred? 
• Could a new physical health problem be contributing? 

Recent research examining self-directed behaviour in captive Asian elephants reported an association between this behaviour and social conflict^[2]. However, the study involved only four elephants, so the findings should be regarded as preliminary rather than as evidence of a validated behavioural marker of stress or disease^[2]. 

That distinction is important in practice. A behavioural change can justify further assessment without being sufficient to establish its cause. 

Behaviour and physical health should be assessed together 

A behavioural assessment should not be separated from the elephant’s physical examination and management history. 

A 2024 review of elephant welfare assessment approaches highlighted the limitations of relying on isolated indicators and supported combining multiple animal- and resource-based measures when assessing welfare^[3]. 

A separate 2024 study developing a welfare assessment tool for elephants in Asian tourist camps incorporated multiple domains, including nutrition, environment, health and behaviour, rather than relying on behaviour alone^[4]. 

For clinical practice, this supports a broader response when an elephant’s behaviour changes. 

The assessment should consider physical health, social circumstances and the management environment together. Depending on the behavioural pattern, this may include reviewing appetite, body condition, locomotion, signs of pain or illness, social interactions, housing conditions, activity levels and recent changes in routine. 

Look for a pattern rather than a single observation 

A single unusual behaviour is not necessarily clinically meaningful. 

Greater attention is warranted when the behaviour is: 

• New for the individual; 
• Persistent or increasingly frequent; 
• Associated with a particular situation; 
• Accompanied by changes in appetite or activity; 
• Accompanied by altered social interaction; 
• Occurring alongside physical abnormalities; 
• Associated with a recent change in management. 

This approach helps reduce the risk of interpreting normal individual variation as disease while still allowing potentially relevant changes to be investigated. 

Document the change objectively 

“Abnormal behaviour” is rarely sufficient as a clinical record. 

Instead, document: 

• What behaviour occurred; 
• How frequently it occurred; 
• How long it lasted; 
• When and where it occurred; 
• What preceded or followed it; 
• Whether it occurred alone or in the presence of other elephants; 
• Whether it changed with access to food, space or social contact; 
• Whether the behaviour was new, increasing, decreasing or intermittent. 

Where possible, repeated observations under comparable conditions are more informative than a single observation. 

A consistent record also allows behavioural observations to be compared with subsequent clinical findings and management changes. 

The clinical takeaway 

Behaviour becomes clinically useful when it is assessed against the elephant’s own baseline and interpreted alongside physical health, social circumstances and the management environment. 

A new or sustained behavioural change should therefore be regarded as a signal for further assessment—not as a diagnosis in itself.

References:

1. Vanitha V, Thiyagesan K, Baskaran N. Prevalence of stereotypies and its possible causes among captive Asian elephants (Elephas maximus) in Tamil Nadu, India. Applied Animal Behaviour Science. 2016;174:137–146. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.applanim.2015.10.006
2. Vilela S, Chen P, Murakami S, Tanabe Y, Yamamoto S. Self-directed behavior reflects social stress in captive Asian elephants. Front Vet Sci. 2025;12:1629664. Published 2025 Jun 13. https://doi.org/10.3389/fvets.2025.1629664
3. Ghimire RG, Brown JL, Thitaram C, Bansiddhi P. Comparison of animal welfare assessment tools and methodologies: need for an effective approach for captive elephants in Asia. Frontiers in Veterinary Science. 2024;11:1370909. https://doi.org/10.3389/fvets.2024.1370909
4. Ghimire R, Brown JL, Thitaram C, et al. Development of a welfare assessment tool for tourist camp elephants in Asia. PeerJ. 2024;12:e18370. Published 2024 Oct 28. https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.18370