This is the
part of the project that will take the most time and require the most research.
You will conduct library research to locate scholarly work that has already
been conducted on your topic, or on themes that overlap with your topic; you
will read and summarize this scholarship, drawing connections to your specific project
proposal. Some things to consider in this phase:
· While this is an anthropology
course, animal studies is very interdisciplinary. Your research should be
interdisciplinary and can contain texts from a range of fields, including but
not limited to anthropology. These can include sociology, geography,
environmental studies, history, etc.
· You will require at least 10
scholarly texts in your annotated bibliography – these can be peer-reviewed
journal articles or books.
· Annotations should be at least two
paragraphs each, summarizing the argument and approach of the text, how it is
relevant to your research topic, and what information it provides to help you
answer your research questions.
· You are encouraged to supplement
your scholarly bibliography with news sources, documentaries, op-eds,
commentaries, or anything else you feel offers you a more robust understanding
of your topic and its relationship to other questions we have been exploring
this semester. Annotations for these supplemental sources can be limited to a
couple sentences.
topic: Research
question
Are the treatments of the rescued
elephants of Vantara Conservation in Gujarat India effective?
Methods
I am planning to conduct
observational studies to document the treatments provided to the rescued
elephants. This involves direct observation of elephant care routines,
veterinary treatments, and behavioral changes before and after treatments. Analyzing
medical records and treatment logs to quantify the types of treatments
administered, frequency of treatments, and health outcomes for individual
elephants. This approach can provide objective data on the efficacy of specific
treatments. I will also be using a body condition score (BCS) that estimates
adiposity based on visual or tactile evaluations of muscle tone and key skeletal
elements. BCS is commonly used for managing and caring for animals, and extreme
scores (very skinny or very fat) can show if an animal isn’t doing well.