Interrupted Lives: Welfare Considerations in Wildlife Rehabilitation
Each year in the United States, thousands of sick, injured, or displaced wild animals are presented to individuals or organizations who have either a federal or state permit that allows them to care for these animals with the goal of releasing them back to the wild. The purpose of this review is to demonstrate the […]
Interrupted Lives: Welfare Considerations in Wildlife Rehabilitation
Each year in the United States, thousands of sick, injured, or displaced wild animals are presented to individuals or organizations who have either a federal or state permit that allows them to care for these animals with the goal of releasing them back to the wild. The purpose of this review is to demonstrate the […]
Individual personality predicts social network assemblages in a colonial bird
Animal personalities manifest as consistent individual differences in the performance of specific behavioural expressions. Personality research has implications for zoo animal welfare, as it can further our understanding of how captive individuals may differ in their resource use and provide insight into improving individual and group social health. For group living species, personality may enable […]
Can behavioural management improve behaviour and reproduction in captive blue-and-yellow macaws (Ara ararauna)?
Environments that do not provide animals with appropriate stimuli may affect their welfare and reproduction, for example by precluding them from exhibiting their full behavioural repertoire. In this study, we sought to evaluate the effectiveness of behavioural management techniques to stimulate the exhibition of normal behaviours, and to promote breeding improvement of nine captive pairs […]
Deflighting zoo birds and its welfare considerations
For over a century the practice of deflighting has taken place in zoological collections in order to ensure birds remain in open-topped enclosures. Over time, efforts have been made to improve or develop new (surgical) techniques, reduce risk of complications during deflighting and minimise stress and pain during the procedure. However, increased public interest in […]
Implementing portable touchscreen-setups to enhance cognitive research and enrich zoo-housed animals
To understand the evolutionary development of cognition, comparing the cognitive capacities of different animal species is essential. However, getting access to various species with sufficient sample sizes can be very challenging. Zoos, housing large ranges of animal taxa, would offer ideal research environments, but zoo-based studies on cognition are still rare. The use of touchscreen-computers […]
Scaling of body temperature in mammals and birds
1.We examine variation associated with phylogeny in the scaling of body temperature in endotherms, using data from 596 species of mammal and 490 species of bird. 2. Among higher groups of mammals there is statistically significant scaling of body temperature with mass in Marsupialia (positive), Ferae and Ungulata (both negative). In mammalian orders where data […]
Infrared analysis of contour feathers: The conservation of body heat radiation in birds
1. We examined infrared absorption spectra in contour feathers of 10 species of birds to compare infrared features of the downy and pennaceous regions with the mechanisms of conservation of body heat radiation. 2. At 1700 cm 1, a sharp increase in transmittance was observed for downy parts, but not for the distal pennaceous regions. […]
The effect of flicker from fluorescent lights on mate choice in captive birds
The visual systems of birds are hypothesized to have higher temporal resolution than those of humans, suggesting that they may be able to perceive the flicker emitted from conventional low-frequency fluorescent lights (LF; 100 Hz in Europe, 120 Hz in the U.S.A.). These lights are commonly used in the housing of captive birds and this […]
Laboratory birds: refinements in husbandry and procedures
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