Elephants, Mobility and Captivity: What Can These Mighty and Majestic Animals Teach Us About Joint Health and Osteoarthritis?
Year: 2021
Type: preprint
Abstract: The African bush and forest elephants, Loxodonta Africana and Loxodonta cyclotis, and the Asian elephant, Elephas maximus, are the largest land-dwelling animals. Elephants need to be highly mobile and active in order to find fresh food and water, and in the case of males, to locate females in estrus for breeding. Asian elephants walk up to 21 km each day and African elephants can walk up to 28 km per day. This high level of mobility in the wild is also important for maintaining an optimum musculoskeletal health. However, most zoo elephants live in restricted spaces and cold climates that require extended periods of indoor confinement are therefore unable to be as physically active. Zoo enclosures for elephants are relatively small with hard surfaces (i.e. concrete, tarmac and hard packed dirt), so they cannot exercise and are forced to stand on unnaturally hard surfaces continually. Physical inactivity in captivity makes them more prone to gaining weight and developing bone and joint diseases such as osteomyelitis, joint ankylosis and osteoarthritis (OA). Many health and welfare problems in captive elephants are likely to be caused by the lack of mobility. This perspective article focuses on the possible link between captivity, mobility, physical inactivity and the development of OA in captive elephants.
Source: Preprints.org
Authors: Ali Mobasheri, Carol Buckley
Language: English
Subfield: Animal Science and Zoology
Domain: Life Sciences
Open Access status: green
Awards: G1073258374, Chondrocyte ion channel function and regulation in health and disease, Novel Diagnostics and Biomarkers for Early Identification of Chronic Inflammatory Joint Diseases, G1732308444, G2325242462, G2393801413, G2488643646, G2557024270, G3207356259, Mechanotransdukciniai L tipo kalcio kanalai, kaip terapinis taikinys, veikiantis osteoartritinės kremzlės metabolinius procesus, G393177772, G3946622174, G4053127980, G4559066111, G5149053315, G5350679257, G5518805754, G5686640147, G5702163051, Applied Public-Private Research enabling OsteoArthritis Clinical Headway, G6701547165, G6742565944, G682275100, G7722005679, G7868512380, G8448963523
OpenAlex ID: W4229499270