Aripark Dvur Connected to (Only Elephants Included within the Study Are Listed) -ElephantSexOriginDate of Birth(Re)united withKariba Zimba Drumbo Saly UmbuF F F F FZoo-born Wild-born Wild-born Wild-born Wild-born17 March 2006 1982 1990 1982Zimba Kariba and Lilak Saly, Umbu Drumbo DrumboAll unifications and reunifications took place under precisely the same (testing) situations. The sample size for associated elephants was n = 4, and the sample size for unrelated elephants was n = 6. The sample size for reunifications of the related and unrelated elephant groups waws n = two. For the duration of the unification of Zimba with Lilak and Kariba, Zimba was in her steady when Lilak and Kariba had been released separately into the enclosure subsequent to hers; therefore, two data sets are presented (Zimba Lilak and Zimba Kariba). During the unification of Drumbo with Umbu and Saly, Drumbo was in the stable and Umbu and Saly entered the enclosure next to hers with each other, resulting in 1 data set. During the reunifications, the daughters (Tana and Panya) had been in their enclosures and their mothers (Pori and Bibi) entered the adjacent enclosure. 2.2. Ethological Data Collection All behaviours on the elephants on first protected meeting through a fence have been documented utilising the ethogram (Table 1) in line with scan sampling by exactly the same human observer [461], focusing on indicators of behaviour characteristic for the Greeting Ceremony [7,18,281,52,53]. Acoustic signals (trumpets, rumbles, and roars) have been noted and specified when heard. Additionally, the ethogram differentiated amongst signs of agitation connected to excitement (affiliative connotation) and indicators of agitation associated to fear (agonistic connotation) [7,27,45,46]. Procedures were observed while elephants had been nonetheless separated by way of a fence, though in tactile, visual, auditory, and olfactory make contact with, as 1st meetings for the duration of the introduction of new herd members have been KU-0060648 In stock performed using a barrier for safety causes. Despite the fact that observation instances ranged between 35 to 78 min, most behaviours occurred inside the very first 30 min. Hence, only the first 30 min had been made use of for analyses. The distance that the elephants kept for the fence all through the (re)unification was measured in meters to assess their willingness to touch the other individual [47]. The distance was according to direct get in touch with (meaning tactile make contact with to the fence or animal) or distance of 1 m, 1 m, 3 m, and 4 m. The elephants’ distance for the fence was recorded every 10 s throughout the (re)unification. For all elephants, the very first moment of tactile get in touch with throughout (re)unification was determined and is known as first speak to of trunks all through this paper. This indicator was utilized to describe the willingness in the elephants to attain for and touch the other elephant and for their curiosity [47]. The sets of data for behaviour and distance towards the fence had been A-61603 custom synthesis classified numerically [54,55]. Statistical evaluation for all data was performed employing SPSS 27, and whether or not there have been significances within the variations inside the data sets between elephants on reunifications and unifications was calculated. Utilising the Kolmogorov mirnov test, it was determined regardless of whether the data distribution was regular, followed by intercorrelation calculations (Spearman’s) with the subscales [56,57]. As the data of both the behaviour analysisAnimals 2021, 11,six ofand the distance evaluation showed no even distribution of significance (p 0.05) [58,59], the data sets had been not standard in distribution plus the Mann hitney U Test w.