Elephants in captivity face profound welfare challenges when their complex social, spatial and cognitive needs are not met. Understanding what genuine elephant welfare requires drives reform of keeping standards.
Captive elephant welfare requires addressing fundamental incompatibilities between elephant biology and standard zoo keeping. Chaining prevents natural movement and causes physical and psychological harm. Solitary housing violates deep social needs. Hard substrate causes the foot pathology that kills captive elephants prematurely. The emerging international standard involves large, naturalistic enclosures with compatible social groups and management strategies that give elephants agency over their environment and daily routine. Many existing captive facilities cannot meet these standards.