[LUM#8] Female Elephants on Maternity Leave

[LUM Magazine] - Published on December 4, 2018 in Science and Society

Introducing maternity leave for… domestic elephants in Laos is the very serious suggestion made by biologist Gilles Maurer of the Center for Functional and Evolutionary Ecology (CEFE). A measure aimed at compensating owners for lost income during their animals’ gestation period and which, according to the researcher, could well contribute to the conservation of this species, which is currently endangered.

“If nothing changes, the Asian elephant will simply have disappeared from the region within the next fifty years,” warns Gilles Maurer. In Laos, the shift toward a market economy in the late 1990s was accompanied by a sudden increase in the workload of domesticated elephants, primarily for hauling rosewood now destined for export.“Transporting trees from the cutting site to temporary storage areas is a very physically demanding operation that is particularly incompatible with the gestation of females,” explains the researcher.

Birth rates in free fall

In this context, the reproduction of female elephants was quickly linked to the loss of income it causes their owners.“Pregnancy tires the female, making her less effective at physical labor. And when the calf is born, it hinders its mother’s movements, making her difficult to approach and very protective,” explains the founder ofElefantAsia.

Across the country, owners of domesticated female elephants quickly stopped breeding their animals, preferring the income generated by logging and, more recently, by tourism. Furthermore, the loss of forest habitat has forced owners to keep their elephants tethered, preventing them from breeding with wild males. As a result, the birth rate of these pachyderms has plummeted since the 1990s, to the point that Laos, nicknamed the “land of a million elephants,” now has only 800 individuals (Conservation of the Asian elephant through the study of interactions between humans and wild and semi-captive elephant populations: genetic, economic, and sociocultural, G. Maurer, June 2018).

Compensatory logic

“Compensating elephant owners for lost income during the long gestation period (22 months) and nursing period (2 years) of their animals would help separate elephant population dynamics from economic considerations and could boost birth rates,”says Gilles Maurer, who is now advocating for the introduction in Laos of Western-style maternity leave for the benefit of female elephants and their owners.

Until recently unknown in the country, the concept of “maternity leave” already seems to be appealing to owners of domesticated elephants. In a country where tax payments remain uncertain, however, these owners are wondering about the practical details of its implementation and—above all—how it will be funded in practice. Meanwhile, in Laos, a new threat looms over Elephas Maximus: its rampant export to neighboring China. While Laos sees no more than 10 elephant calf births annually, 5% of the population is now sold each year to China to be exploited for tourism purposes.

Keywords: Ecology, LUM#8, LUM Magazine