Are Elephants Domesticated?
There has long been debate around whether or not captive Asian elephants, in particular, are domesticated. This thought is rooted in the fact that Asian elephants have been used in captive environments for thousands of years which could lend to a change in their behavior enough to be considered domesticated.
Because we’ve gotten so accustomed to seeing Asian elephants in captive environments, many have started using the word “captive” and “domesticated” interchangeably when it comes to elephants. But captive and domesticated are not interchangeable, and all evidence points to the fact that elephants in captive are just that— captive. Elephants are not domesticated animals.
Why Aren’t Elephants Domesticated?
Domestication is a sustained effort to breed individuals based on desired traits in an attempt to secure a more predictable population. On average, creating a domesticated species takes 12 generations of highly selective breeding for specific characteristics. While elephants are and have been bred in captivity for years, this type of effort has never been made to reach the point of domestication.
Across Asia, elephants are being bred in captive environments; however, breeding pairs are matched based primarily on accessibility rather than the personal characteristics of those two elephants. In order to breed for the purpose of domestication, we would need to hand-pick each breeding pair for personality traits like amenability to make the next generation easier to manage.
Semi-captive elephants have been maintained as draught animals for millennia throughout Asia, but as their reproduction has always been largely independent of humans, they have never been selectively bred to domestication. Due to lack of domestication, elephant management in these semi-captive populations has instead relied on the expertise of specialised handlers (mahouts), which has accumulated over many generations.
— Crawley et al., 2019
Why is it Harmful to Call Captive Wildlife Domesticated?
Referring to elephants as "domesticated" harms animal welfare as it inaccurately implies that elephants have been fully tamed and are suited for captivity, disregarding their complex physical, social, and emotional needs. To suggest that elephants are domesticated increases the risk of dangerous encounters with captive elephants while justifying their suffering in captivity with the suggestion that they don’t mind such exploitation and restriction.
To avoid improper treatment of captive wildlife and optimize safety between humans and captive wildlife, we must continue to regard captive elephants as captive rather than domesticated.
