Influence of season, tourist activities and camp management on body condition, testicular and adrenal steroids, lipid profiles, and metabolic status in captive Asian elephant bulls in Thailand

We previously found relationships between body condition and physiological function affecting health and welfare of female tourist camp elephants in Thailand, and used that approach to conduct a similar study of bulls elephants in the same camps (n = 13). Elephants received a body condition score (BCS) every other month, and fecal glucocorticoid metabolite (FGM) concentrations were measured in twice monthly samples for 1 year. Effects of season, camp management and tourist activity on lipid profiles [total cholesterol (TC), low density lipoproteins (LDL), high density lipoproteins (HDL), triglycerides (TG)] and metabolic factors [insulin, glucose, fructosamine, glucose to insulin ratio (G:I)] were determined and correlated to measures of body condition, testosterone and adrenal function. Positive correlations were found between BCS and TG, between FGM and TG, HDL and glucose, and between testosterone and HDL (p