Human interventions in a behavioural experiment for Asian Elephants (Elephas maximus)

Experiments are widely used to investigate the behaviour and cognition of animals. While the automation of experiments to avoid potential experimenter bias is sometimes possible, not all experiments can be conducted without human presence. This is particularly true for large animals in captivity, which are often managed by professional handlers. For the safety of the animals and experimenters, a handler must be present during behavioural studies with certain species. It is not always clear to what extent cues provided by handlers affect the animals, and therefore the experimental results. In this study, we investigate handler interventions during the training process for a behavioural experiment with Asian elephants (Elephas maximus) in Nepal. We show that elephant handlers (mahouts) intervened to guide elephants in performing the learning task using vocal and behavioural cues, despite experimenters requesting minimal intervention. We found that although the frequency of mahout interventions did not decrease as the training progressed, the nature of their interventions changed. We also found more non-verbal than verbal cues across the training. Our results suggest that guidance from handlers may be common in behavioural studies, and continued consideration should be put into experimental design to reduce or account for cues that animals may receive from humans. This study also emphasises the need to take into account the presence of humans in interpreting the results of animal behavioural experiments, which not only presents challenges to behavioural research, but also represents opportunities for further study. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10071-022-01668-8.