Positive Reinforcement Conditioning as a Tool for Frequent Minimally Invasive Blood and Vaginal Swab Sampling in African Lions (Panthera Leo)
Information regarding the physiology of African lions is scarce, mainly due to challenges associated with essential routine research procedures. The aim of this experiment was to test the possibility of training six captive lionesses by positive reinforcement conditioning (PRC) to voluntarily allow the collection of vaginal swabs and blood samples. This was done with the […]
Preliminary Evaluation of Environmental Enrichment Techniques for African Lions (Panthera leo)
A study was conducted over 24 days to evaluate the effects of three environmental enrichment techniques (frozen balls of ice containing fish, various scents, hanging logs) on four captive African lions (Panthera leo). Behavioural data on activity level and behavioural diversity were collected daily during a baseline and an enriched session. All enrichments produced positive […]