THE INDENTS in an elephant's skull, the protrusion of its ribs and the mass of wrinkly skin hanging from its bones are all clues for illustrator Andrew Howells. With a set of 60 illustrations, Andrew has created a reference index for Body Condition Scoring (BCS), which helps scientists visually assess the health of captive Asian elephants. "To make a BCS assessment you need visual references that demonstrate the scope of possible body conditions in a species, and from this understanding assign a bodycondition score to an individual animal," Andrew says. BCS is one component of an inter- national study — involving universities, zoos and conservation research centres — that aims to discover the optimal body condition for reproductive success in captive Asian elephants. As a PhD candidate in Natural History Illustration (see AG 94) at the University of Newcastle, Andrew spent several years researching, observing and sketching the form, proportion, structure and anatomy of Asian elephants. In 2009 he joined the late Dr Roy McClements, a veterinary science lecturer at the University of Sydney, for a month at Fort Worth Zoo, Texas.
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