Animal welfare

• SPIDER (Mellen and Macphee 2001)

  1. Setting goals
  2. Planning
  3. Implementing
  4. Documenting
  5. Evaluating
  6. Re-adjusting
• Training concepts

  • targets
  • animal touches target, precision and direction
  • operant conditioning
  • positive reinforcement training, primary/secondary reinforcer
  • jackpot rewards
  • large reward given at end of training session
• Shaping = where behavior is trained through small steps that eventually lead to the full behavior being done
• Training benefits

  • safe husbandry
  • reduces animal stress and risk of injury etc
  • veterinary treatment
  • health checks made easier
• Habitutaion

  • training may be effective at first
  • initial reaction due to novelty
  • show decreased responses
  • Prevented by
  • randomising schedule
  • increasing complexity of environment
  • changing how enrichment is provided
• Plowman and Knowles (2003) tigers

  • reduce tiger pacing by hiding food, different scents, barrels, watermelons
  • given at different times
  • mixing it up kept pacing at a low
• Types of enrichment

  • Cognitive
  • Social
  • Sensory
  • Physical/ manipulatory
  • Food based
• Goals of enrichment

  • reduce frequency of abnormal behavior
  • increase behavior diversity
  • increase range or number of normal behaviour
  • provide opportunities for choice/control
  • increase opportunity for learning
  • increase ability to cope with challenges
  • increase positive utilisation of the environment
• Other animal behavior interests

  • anticipatory behavior
• Other animal behavior interests

  • anticipatory behavior
  • increasing role of psych in zoos
  • conservation advocacy and human behavior
  • Effect of visitor experiences on visitor learning
• Anticipatory behavior = predictable routines that lead to a behavior change up to the feeding time etc
• Newbolt et al 2017

  • Paignton and Living Coasts
  • visitor survey about interests, learning, conservation
  • 5 groups
  • Feeding experiences (PZFE, LCFE)
  • Keeper talks (PZKT)
  • General visitors at (PZGV, LCGV)
  • FE groups had higher interests and were more interesting in conservation