Asian elephants (Elephas maximus) exhibit complex behavioural responses to ecological conditions, social relationships, resource availability, seasonal changes, and human-modified landscapes. Although a substantial body of research has examined elephant movement, habitat use, foraging, social behaviour, and responses to human disturbance, this knowledge remains dispersed across different disciplines and study contexts. A systematic synthesis is therefore required to identify consistent behavioural patterns and translate them into clearly defined behavioural rules. This study is a systematic literature review and evidence-synthesis protocol focusing on the behaviour of wild Asian elephants. The review aims to identify, classify, and synthesise published evidence on factors influencing elephant movement, habitat selection, resource use, social interactions, risk avoidance, and responses to environmental and anthropogenic conditions. Relevant studies will be identified through structured searches of major academic databases, including Scopus, Web of Science, and Google Scholar, supplemented by reference list screening and grey literature. Eligible studies will be screened using predefined inclusion and exclusion criteria, followed by structured data extraction and quality assessment. Findings will be synthesised using narrative and thematic approaches, supported by evidence tables and behavioural-rule extraction. The review is expected to provide a transparent and reproducible knowledge base that can support ecological research, conservation planning, human–elephant coexistence strategies, and the future development of agent-based models and spatial decision-support tools.
Senevirathne et al. (2026) studied this question.