Preference for and use of oral enrichment objects in juvenile silver foxes (Vulpes vulpes)
Publication Type: |
Journal Article |
Year of Publication: |
2016 |
Authors: |
Anne Lene Hovland, Anne Marit S. Rød, Tarja Koistinen, Leena Ahola |
Publication/Journal: |
Applied Animal Behaviour Science |
Keywords: |
behaviour, environmental enrichment, preference, silver fox |
ISBN: |
0168-1591 |
Abstract:
Providing captive foxes with relevant enrichment objects may support their ability to cope with barren housing systems and thus have positive welfare effects. The relevance of enrichment objects is, among others, related to animals’ preference that should be examined prior to supplementing their housing environment. In this study, we assessed 30 juvenile, singly housed silver foxes’ short-term preference for five different oral enrichment objects based on their immediate use of the objects when they were given simultaneous access after one week of deprivation. Also, wear and tear after one week of continuous access was assessed as a measure of use and to estimate the robustness and durability of various objects. A cattle femur bone was clearly the first ranked object (P ≤ 0.05), followed by a rawhide bone, a mutual pulling device mounted between neighbouring cages, and straw and a plastic cube as the least used objects. All of the objects were, to a various degree, gnawed by the foxes. After one week of use, about 30% of the cattle bone mass was consumed, compared to about 88% of the rawhide bone mass. Although the plastic cubes were almost indestructible and therefore durable objects their low ranking do not necessarily make them good enrichment objects for foxes. Offering meat bones to captive foxes provide the animals with biologically relevant stimuli that elicit oral manipulation and play, behaviours with potential rewarding effects to the animals.