Elephants are highly social animals with complex family structures, and zoo elephants often suffer from inadequate social environments that fail to meet their psychological needs.
The welfare of zoo elephants is deeply connected to their social environment. Elephants deprived of appropriate social groups show high rates of stereotypic behavior - repetitive, purposeless movements that are indicators of psychological distress. Many zoo elephants live as solitary individuals or in incompatible pairs, experiencing chronic loneliness. Physical welfare is also compromised by hard substrates causing joint problems, and behavioral welfare suffers from lack of meaningful choice and control over their environment.