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Lucy Rutherford

Conservation Scholar

  • Qualifications BSc, MRes
  • Focus area
    Populations
  • Location
    At the Zoo
  • Additional Information Focus Area - Elephant behaviour, welfare, personality.
    PhD University of Chester
    "The development of a novel personality and welfare tool for zoo housed elephants"

I am a PhD student in the School of Psychology at the University of Chester with a focus on Animal Psychology.  Previous experience researching the elephant herd at Chester Zoo includes an Undergraduate Dissertation with a focus on social behaviours (with reference to associations, proximity, behaviour and affiliative interactions) and personality. Subsequent work within a Master’s research degree delved deeper via the use of different proximity indices and most notably, comparing two approaches to assessing elephant personality: inductive (elephant-specific personality tool, adapted from Lee & Moss’ personality work with wild African elephants) and deductive (a human-orientated personality tool designed around the Big Five) measures, concluding that a standardised tool is lacking in relation to elephant personality. Additional research and subsequent published work discussed the response to herd member death, with observable changes in personality and behaviour reported.

The current PhD project aims to create a novel welfare and personality scale, working closely alongside the Science and Elephant Teams at Chester Zoo, incorporating elements of Qualitative Behavioural Analysis (QBA) and importantly, utilising Mellor’s Five Domains model in welfare assessments, emphasising the importance of the “Mental Domain”. The proposed tool will build upon and complement existing, previously published welfare assessments, most notably the tool developed by Yon and colleagues in 2019.  This tool will be validated with live behavioural observations of the Asian elephant herd at Chester Zoo and with physiological biomarkers. This will subsequently be replicated at a selection of UK and European zoos with Asian and African elephant collections to ascertain whether the same scale can be used for both species or if scale alterations are required.

Chester Zoo has always been prominent in ‘leading the way’ for best practice, holding internationally recognised Elephant Husbandry Workshops and encouraging staff membership in the Elephant Welfare Group, advising on overall care, husbandry routines, nutrition and housing. Over the past 10 years the Elephant and Science teams have collaborated to develop behavioural monitoring techniques to aid keepers in assessing welfare. This project will add to this existing body of work to help shape not only welfare assessment for the species, but with the potential to influence best practice and policy for the keeping of the species.

 

Supervisors:

Dr Lisa Holmes (Chester Zoo)

Dr Lindsay Murray (University of Chester)

Dr Katie Edwards (Chester Zoo)

Dr David Gordon (University of Chester)

Emeritus Prof Phyllis Lee (Department of Psychology, University of Stirling – Advisor)

 

Publications:

Rutherford, L., & Murray, L. E. (2021). Personality and behavioral changes in Asian elephants (Elephas maximus) following the death of herd members. Integrative Zoology, 16(2), 170-188. https://doi.org/10.1111/1749-4877.12476