- We had some cases of bad coping of animals in our zoo (Neprintseva E., Iltchenko O., 2008. Do Changes in Animals’ External Stimulation Influence the Adaptation to New Captive Conditions? // Proceedings of the Eighth International Conference on Environmental Enrichment. Vienna, 2008. P.267-268).
- Maybe someone heard about this problem in captivity?
I found only articles with biological adequate use by animals of they space.
(for example captive felids used little of their enclosure spaces (Baldwin (1991); Lyons et al. (1997)). i think, that it is equal for wild felids.
But I try to find cases of animal's refusing from explore new environment, situation of bad coping, bad adaptation animal to new environmental. May be someone know reporting cases when animals don't want to exploring it's new enclosure in Post-occupancy evaluations practice?
I don't have a reference off hand, but failure to use new enclosures or new aspects of enclosures may not necessarily be bad coping or poor adaptation. It may simply be bad enclosure design. For example, the zoo where I do much of my observational work (with gorillas) had a relatively large enclosure, but the gorillas only use the front half. We've not studied this, but two explanations present themselves. 1) The front has a wider variety of enrichment devices, foraging locations (feeders, puzzles), and more available places to "escape" from human and conspecific sight. 2) The back has a large amount of attractive & edible vegetation, BUT the vegetation is ringed in hotwire (electrified). It may be a combination of these factors rather than a wellbeing aspect that impacts enclosure use. Another issue may simply be animal preference (maybe the new enclosures are missing something they like?).
Two quick Google Scholar searches didn't turn up much for me. Pretty much the same thing you found - reports on what makes a bad enclosure & how to improve but nothing in the opposite direction. My best guess there is that no one wants to report failure stories for many reasons.
Thanks you, Joshua, for your answer.
We consider that it was a case of poor welfare, because:
1) there was no evidence that animals explore all zone of enclosure (they lived only in the smallest part of it)
that's why they could not choose a preference zone from all areas of the enclosure.
2) animals had a high level of abnormal behavior and the extremely low level of normal activity. 3) and animals started to explore whole enclosure after our treatment.
I found only case of re-design of exhibit for increasing amount of time that gorillas were visible for visitors. Hoff, M., & Maple, T. (1995). Post-occupancy modification of a Lowland gorilla enclosure at Zoo Atlanta. International Zoo Yearbook, 34, 153–160. But it is case of design, no welfare.
HI Alex,
The behavior issues definitely sound like a welfare concern. I know in the primate literature there is a number of articles that discuss changes in enclosure design that improve activity levels & behavior profile (e.g., increased activity & exploration) that would suggest improved welfare, but I don't think those are what you are looking for - correct? Specifically you're searching for reports of welfare indicators being worse in a new or re-designed enclosure (that presumably was designed to be an improvement)? Is this correct?
Hi Joshua,
Yes, you are right. But I'm trying to find cases not only a poor welfare in new enclosure, but exactly about refusing of animals from exploration new environmental.
for example: http://www.goerie.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2008808120371.
Hi Alex,
I am not sure I could provide a reference off hand, but a direction you might want to consider looking at is animal learning. Just some food for thought, I hope it helps.
Thanks you for your help, Porscha.
Indeed, in two cases we changed animals' behavior by specific food enrichment program. But in other cases it was just presence of observers near animals's enclosure (please see above in the topic of my question).
That is why we try to find another facts about this problem and how someone solved this problem.
Dear Alex
Thank you for the question. When you want to rear and breed wild mammal under captivity, it is necessary to get enough knowledge about the diurnal and nocturnal activities and behavioral patterns of such animal species in the wild (free-range life). Thereafter, this information will be used to accommodate such animal species when brought into captivity. I will send you later an example in a file contained the precautions used in rearing and breeding Gazella dorcas (small desert Artiodactyla) in captivity for re-introduction research work.
Hello, dear Sayied
Thanks you for your answer!
Your investigation will be very interesting for us!
It's a minor example but there are a few studies of rodents burying enrichment items due to fear, can send citations if you are interested.
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