# Attitudes towards the Potential Use of Aversive Geofencing Devices to Manage Wild Elephant Movement
## 4 Discussion  
We explored the perceptions towards the potential use of AGDs to manage elephant movement by surveying different stakeholder groups whose opinions and support is vital for the successful implementation of AGDs as an HEC mitigation tool. We found that respondents had similar views towards AGDs regardless of whether they were experts, farmers or others, and whether or not they had personal experience with HEC; each group largely felt the same towards AGDs (Figure 2). Elephants are intelligent animals with superior cognitive skills [83; 84], a trait acknowledged by the general public with usage of phrases such as \"memory like an elephant\" or \"an elephant never forgets\" [85; 86]. This understanding may have contributed to all respondent groups agreeing on the likelihood of elephants learning to associate the AGDs' warning sound with the impending electric shock, thereby avoiding the shock and highlighting the potential effectiveness of AGDs in managing elephant movement (Figure 3a,c). When questioned about the acceptability of managing elephants in this way, the expert-no HEC and other-no HEC groups were relatively neutral, while all other groups considered it somewhat acceptable (Figure 3b). People tend to perceive a novel HEC mitigation tool as increasingly favourable as their knowledge on its effectiveness improves [77]. Similarly, our results suggested that if evidence can be provided that AGDs can effectively manage the movement of captive elephants, then the acceptability of using AGDs on wild elephants would increase among all groups (Figure 3d). However, the relatively lower acceptability and higher potential for conflict within the expert-no HEC group, even if such evidence is provided, indicates that building consensus among all experts on AGDs may pose some challenges. Most people were either ambivalent or considered AGDs to be acceptable (Figure 1), but those who considered AGDs to be unacceptable may be categorised into two main groups based on their stated reasons for unacceptability: (1) those who see AGDs as unethical or harmful, and (2) those who feel that AGDs will be unsuccessful in managing wild elephant movements (Table S4). These opinions may be due to \"conflict over values and conflict over evidence\", as highlighted by [PERSON] et al. [72]. If scientific evidence can be provided on the effectiveness of AGDs from preliminary trials with wild elephants, it will help develop consensus with the latter group. But the views of those who consider AGDs to be unethical might vary under different severity levels of HEC [87], for example, when HEC results in frequent death of humans and elephants, rather than a low frequency of crop damage. Obtaining social acceptability and the support of stakeholders is important and was also suggested by our respondents as a potential challenge for implementing AGDs. One respondent even pointed out that some may consider elephants as non-human persons with rights (Table S5, see also [PERSON], [88]; [PERSON] and [PERSON], [89] and [PERSON], [90]), and therefore, using methods where humans 'control' animals may be perceived as unethical People's opinion towards management approaches may change with more awareness of the actual situation [74]. Proper dialog between relevant groups on the severity of HEC experienced in many regions and whether retaliatory killing, other HEC mitigation approaches or use of AGDs would be ethically justifiable and effective in such situations will be important. Respondents questioned the impact on the mental and physical wellbeing of elephants in response to electric shocks. Previous studies conducted on other species [91; 92; 93; 94; 95] and with captive Asian elephants [76] showed that the expected increase in acute stress levels measured using behavioural (e.g., aversive or anxiety/stress related behaviours) and physiological (e.g., cortisol hormone levels, heart rate, body temperature) responses to electric shock rapidly returned to baseline levels soon after experiencing them.