The terms ‘reintegration’ or ‘rewilding’ are not novel concepts in South Africa, where a total of 24 previously captive African elephants (Loxodonta africana), have been successfully released onto fenced reserves. Some researchers argue that elephant rewilding could serve as a practical solution for the mitigation of elephant welfare challenges, related to captivity, however, other researchers question the ability of previously captive animals to adapt to novel environments.

For animal reintegration to be deemed successful, various indicators have been formulated and utilised, to aid in the evaluation of such an operation. It has been postulated that reproductive success, prey/ predator response, movement patterns, and social interactions, are all valuable indicators of a successful reintegration.

Limited studies are available on the movement patterns of previously captive African elephants. Particularly, studies that have monitored released elephants for more than four years, which are necessary for elephants to adapt. Therefore, our study aims to investigate the change in movement patterns of previously captive African elephants by comparing it to when they were released from the boma, to five years post-release.

We hypothesised that when previously captive elephants are reintegrated back into the wild, they will have similar movement patterns to wild elephants. The movement of previously captive elephants will be affected by rainfall season, be less active during the middle of the day, utilize the reserve uniformly and, exploratory behaviour during the first four months post-release will differ between sexes. We also hypothesised that released elephants will spend more time close to the areas they are familiar with.