At last, the definitive guide to keeping an elephant happy

Books on how to keep hamsters, yes; books on how to keep guinea pigs, sure; but a book on how to keep elephants? Believe it, because Britain's zoos published it yesterday.

The 160-page volume is believed to be the world's first comprehensive guide for the management of elephants in captivity, and it lays down modern welfare standards for the great beasts that many zoos of the recent past would have had difficulty meeting.

Indeed, some zoos still do not meet them – but they will now be expected to comply or give up their elephants.

The guide, produced by the UK Zoo Federation, which represents most of Britain's significant animal collections, has been born out of a revolution in public attitudes towards the keeping of captive animals over the past 10 years. Welfare considerations are now seen as paramount, and the sometimes cramped conditions of the past are no longer acceptable.

The need for the guide has also been highlighted by the deaths of three elephant keepers in the past three years, at Port Lympne, Chester and London zoos. The last incident, in which Jim Robson a keeper at London Zoo was trampled to death in full view of the public, led animal welfare groups such as the RSPCA to question the acceptability of keeping big animals captive, not least because London Zoo's elephant house, a celebrated 1964 building by the modernist architect Hugh Casson, was clearly far too small.

Within days of Mr Robson's death last November London Zoo announced that its three elephants would be moved to its sister wild animal park at Whipsnade in Bedfordshire, which has nearly 20 times as much space.

Chris West, the director of both zoos, launched the new guidelines at Whipsnade yesterday, and conceded that the Casson elephant house would not have met them. "It was an architectural masterpiece of a certain kind," he said, "but over time its original design purpose fell behind our knowledge of what the animals need."

The growing and detailed knowledge of how elephants behave in the wild informs the new guidelines, which have been drawn up by the the Zoo Federation's elephant group, of which Mr West is the chairman. There are now minimum space requirements of 2,000 square metres for a group of eight elephants, double the previous recommendations of the European and American Zoo Associations.

The Casson elephant house in Regent's Park would not have met this – but the large elephant enclosures at Whipsnade, stretching over more than seven acres, comply comfortably.

Further guidelines stress the necessity of water and pools for bathing and sandy areas where elephants can roll. They stress the importance of the right substrate, or surface, for the animals to walk on, recommending rubberised rather than concrete floors in elephant houses.

The guidelines, which suggest that animals should be kept in proper social groups, offer highly detailed management advice, recommending for instance that shackling, which is sometimes necessary to treat elephants medically, should be kept to a minimum, and never for longer than three hours.

In an attempt to combat the danger for keepers, the guidelines also insist on the provision of detailed risk assessments, with behavioural profiles compiled for every animal.

Sixteen of Britain's zoos keep elephants, a total population of 46 African and 44 Asian elephants. They will now be subject to an annual audit of their management practices, Mr West said. Zoos will be expected to meet the guidelines, and those which do not will be expected to stop keeping elephants completely.

The first section of the new book is devoted to elephant conservation, and warns that the Asian strain in particular is now greatly at risk in the wild.

Mr West said: "We believe elephants are in desperate need of conservation, and zoos have an important role to play in that. They are wonderful majestic animals, and we can be ambassadors for the species and educate the public.

"There may have been inappropriate practices in the past in keeping elephants, but now we have a comprehensive guide to their care.

"As long as they are with us we will be dedicated to ensuring they enjoy the full range of their natural behaviours."