May 2017: GVI Chiang Mai

Monthly Achievement Report: Body Scoring Success and Welfare Studies

Objective
To increase and promote
ethical elephant tourism

Objective
To increase and promote
ethical elephant tourism

Summary
We have recently begun a new study into the welfare of semi-wild elephants by studying the physical and behav-
ioural indicators of welfare standards. One of the ways we have been doing this is through body scoring, which pro-
vides an approximate value of an animals overall health, and allows us to see how their condition may change over
time. This is especially useful for studying elephants that have recently returned to the forest from tourist camps.
Report
Following an overhaul of our health check data collection methods, we have now begun to study the welfare of our
elephants here in Huay Pakoot, with the aim of empirically proving the value of our sustainable elephant tourism
model. One of the key components of this new assessment method is body scoring, where we assess the body con-
dition of an individual by assigning a numerical value to 6 key body parts (head, shoulders, rib, flank, pelvis, and low-
er spine). This allows us to give each individual a definitive body score (with a maximum total of 11), and provides us
with the opportunity to see how our elephants body condition changes over time, and subsequently begin to work
out why.
We recently had a new mature bull elephant (Bulouwan) join the project after spending most of his life living
and working in tourist camps. When he arrived, he was severely underweight and had a body score of 3. However,
over the last 12 weeks he has shown a remarkable change, putting on an estimated 500kg (1100 pounds) and his
body score has steadily increased, reaching 8 at the end of the 12 weeks. This substantial increase in such a short
period of time demonstrates just how important it is for elephants to have the chance to live in a natural environ-
ment, and how current tourism models are negatively impacting their health and welfare.

To help us raise funds to keep more elephants out of tourist camps please visit the following site:
https://gvi.org/
10

8
Body Score

0
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Week
Figure 1: Bolouwan Body Scoring Case Study

GVI.2017.1 Written by Elephant Field Staff, Padraig OGrady