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Asian Elephants in the wild

Discussion in 'General Zoo Discussion' started by Cerielson1, 31 Dec 2015.

  1. Cerielson1

    Cerielson1 Member

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    hello i'm currently studying Animal studies in university, i need help with my poster, i have searched the internet for relevant articles, journals and PDFs about the Asian elephants behaviour in the wild and i dont seem to be getting anywhere with it.
    could somebody point me in the right direction.
    thank you
     
  2. temp

    temp Well-Known Member

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    Surely you're familiar with all the standard databases and alike if you're at uni?

    Google scholar, Researchgate, Wiley-Blackwell, Elsevier, etc, etc. There are a huge number of articles dealing with Asian elephant behavior and simply searching for the species name in any of the database give loads of results (usually scientific name is best, but in a species as well known as the elephants common name works, too). If you're just looking for a basic behavioral overview go to the biological section of your uni library and get volume 2 of Handbook of the Mammals of the World, or The Living Elephants: Evolutionary Ecology, Behaviour, and Conservation by Raman Sukumar. The Mammalian Species article for this Asian elephant is online too and it does provide some valuable information, but it is rather dated (1982).
     
  3. Cerielson1

    Cerielson1 Member

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    the university has next to know books on animals and all the info on google scholar is on african elephants not asian or its captive behaviour
     
  4. Chlidonias

    Chlidonias Moderator Staff Member 15+ year member

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    Just as a "test" I put very simple search terms into Google Scholar - e.g. "Elephas maximus", "Asian elephant", "Asian elephant behaviour", etc - all bring up the results one would expect.
     
  5. overread

    overread Well-Known Member

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    Have you spoken with the librarians? In my experiences they are generally (at least the long term staff rather than annual student assistants - if your uni has the latter) very clued up on how to find information. If you've a course on animal studies and limited resources in the library chances are they already know a lot of good resources online or through other avenues to get at information.

    Sometimes it also helps to talk to your tutors, some of them will have extensive libraries of their own reference material and some are willing to loan it out if your topic is difficult to find information on.

    Then again sometimes at uni you have to measure your desire to study a topic with the ease of finding information and be prepared to research a little before committing to a topic to make sure there is information out there; rather than commit and get to near a deadline and not be able to find anything.


    Your uni should have site licences to some of the major journal groups which should make it really easy to find information - indeed without them access can be a major problem.

    You should be in a better position for information access than most of us since journals are often very expensive to sign up for (some run into thousands a year for a subscription).
    Wiley Online Library

    Wiley Library is one I've used that has some free journals, however nothing much on Asian Elephants for free access - lots behind a pay wall but many should be accessible through standard uni site licences
     
  6. Cerielson1

    Cerielson1 Member

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    thank you for your help :)