Play in Elephants: Wellbeing, Welfare or Distraction?
We explore elephant play behaviour since (a) play has been proposed to represent a potential welfare indicator; and (b) play has been associated with long-term survival in the wild. We categorised play into four types, and investigate both social (gentle, escalated-contact) and non-social (lone-locomotor, exploratory-object) play from observations made on wild (Asian N = 101; […]
The effect of alloparental experience and care on anxiety-like, social and parental behaviour in adult mandarin voles
Social experiences, especially during early development, have profound effects on the brain and behaviour in later life. We examined whether the provision of alloparental care by older siblings affects anxiety, sociability and parental behaviour at adulthood in both them and the younger siblings for which they care. Using mandarin voles, Microtus mandarinus, we kept the […]
Early development and growth in captive-born Iberian lynx (Lynx pardinus)
Knowledge on the growth and early development patterns of endangered species can become a useful conservation tool because it may allow detecting anomalous growth in newborns, both in captivity breeding and in the wild. We studied the growth and early development of 40 Iberian lynx (Lynx pardinus) cubs belonging to 21 litters born in captivity […]