Effects of Fresh Chicken Meat and Wood Enrichments on Behavior of Sumatran Tigers (Panthera tigris sumatrae, Pocock, 1929) at Tambling Wildlife Nature Conservation Rescue Centre

Abstract

Abstract Behavior gives valuable information for tiger’s management care. Tigers may perform stereotypic behavior as coping mechanism or stress in captivity. Enrichment techniques can reduce those stereotypic behavior. This research aims to evaluate food and environmental enrichment techniques on Sumatran tiger. Four tigers were observed by focal animal sampling (from 08.00 a.m. to 12.00 a.m. and 01.00 p.m. to 05.00 p.m.) at Tambling Wildlife Nature Conservation Rescue Centre. Tiger’s behaviors were categorized into active, inactive and stereotypic. Two tigers (1 female and 1 male) were observed for 2 days each baseline and post-enrichment. Two tigers (both males) were observed for 4 days each baseline and post-enrichment. Novel woods were introduced to the tigers’ enclosures for environmental enrichment. Fresh chicken meats (2 – 5 kg) were given disorderly at tigers’ enclosures as food enrichment. Baseline and post-enrichment behaviors were analzyed with Wilcoxon. The outcome was tigers’ stereotypic behavior (Z = -1,461, P = 0,144 > 0,05), active behavior (Z = -1,826, P = 0,680 > 0,05) and inactive behavior (Z = -1,095, P = 273 > 0,05) were not significantly reduced by these enrichment techniques. Other enrichment techniques need to be explored even more for tigers’ management care.