Welfare impacts associated with using aversive geofencing devices on captive Asian elephants
Animal-borne aversive geofencing devices (AGDs, or satellite-linked shock collars) are commercially available and used on livestock to restrict their movement within a virtual boundary. This technology has potential application as a human-wildlife conflict mitigation tool, where problem animals might be conditioned to avoid human-dominated habitats by associating an audio warning with a subsequent electric shock, […]
Exploring the Effect of the COVID-19 Zoo Closure Period on Flamingo Behaviour and Enclosure Use at Two Institutions
Visitors can influence the behaviour of zoo animals through their auditory and visual presence, with mixed findings of negative, neutral, and positive effects on welfare. This study opportunistically utilised the UK-wide COVID-19 period of zoo closure to investigate the activity and enclosure usage of Greater (Phoenicopterus roseus) and Chilean (P. chilensis) Flamingos housed at two […]
Activity Budget Comparisons Using Long-Term Observations of a Group of Bottlenose Dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) under Human Care: Implications for Animal Welfare
Zoos and aquaria must provide optimal husbandry conditions and the highest welfare standards for their animals. How the welfare state of an animal or a group of animals can be precisely assessed is currently under debate, and new approaches are necessary to reliably evaluate changes in welfare. One particular measure that is easily applicable is […]
Comparison of confined mandrill (Mandrillus sphinx) behavior in traditional and “ecologically representative” exhibits
Abstract 10.1002/(SICI)1098-2361(1999)18:33.3.CO;2-K Behavior in a confined group of mandrills (Mandrillus sphinx) was compared before and after their move from a traditional, all indoor exhibit to an indoor/outdoor facility. The outdoor exhibit was designed to represent as well as is possible important features of the mandrills’ forest habitat. We predicted that activity budgets in the outdoor […]
Nocturnal behavior in a group of unchained female African elephants
Abstract 10.1002/(SICI)1098-2361(1999)18:23.3.CO;2-W The chaining of elephants at night is a common management strategy in zoos, yet the costs and benefits of such a strategy are relatively unknown. A study of three unchained female African elephants was undertaken to document their nocturnal behavior. The subjects were observed between the hours of 1800 and 0800 for 10 […]
A Comparison of the Activity Budgets of Wild and Captive Sulawesi Crested Black Macaques (Macaca Nigra)
One aim of environmental enrichment techniques is to replicate ‘wild-like’ behaviour in captivity. In this study. three captive troops of Sulawesi crested black macaques (Macaca nigra) were each observed for 100 h in large naturalistic enclosures. Activity budgets constructed from these observations were compared with published data collected from wild troops in the DuaSudara Nature […]
Behavioral development of a polar bear cub (Ursus maritimus) in captivity
The difficulty of observing polar bears (Ursus maritimus) in the wild has prohibited the gathering of behavioral data necessary to develop a baseline set of milestones for monitoring cub development. This study describes and quantifies previously undocumented trends in behavior observed in a captive cub–information that will be useful both in future comparative studies and […]
Effects of Logging on Orangutan Behavior
The human footprint is increasing across the world’s natural habitats, causing large negative impacts on the survival of many species. In order to successfully mitigate the negative effects on species’ survival, it is crucial to understand their responses to human-induced changes. This paper examines the effect of one such disturbance, logging, on Sumatran orangutans – […]
Assessing the effects of cognitive experiments on the welfare of captive chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) by direct comparison of activity budget between wild and captive chimpanzees
We investigated the effects of cognitive experiments by direct comparison of activity budgets between wild and captive chimpanzees. One goal of captive management is to ensure that the activity budgets of captive animals are as similar as possible to those of their wild counterparts. However, such similarity has rarely been achieved. We compared the activity […]
Activity patterns and fine-scale resource partitioning in the gregarious Kihansi spray toad Nectophrynoides asperginis in captivity
Understanding the behavior of species threatened with extinction is important for conservation planning and for solving problems facing species in captivity and the wild. We examined diurnal activity budgets and habitat use of the extinct in the wild Kihansi spray toad to provide insights into ongoing conservation initiatives for this species. Observations on eight target […]