Affiliation:
1. Research & Conservation Department Parco Natura Viva—Garda Zoological Park Bussolengo Italy
2. Department of Life Sciences and Biotechnology University of Ferrara Ferrara Italy
3. DISTAL University of Bologna Bologna Italy
4. Dipartimento di Scienze Biologiche, Geologiche e Ambientali University of Bologna Bologna Italy
Abstract
AbstractThe effect of visitor presence on animal behavior needs to be evaluated to ensure the welfare and improve the husbandry of the individuals in zoos. This study aims to assess the effect of visitor presence on the behavior and welfare of pairs of Amur tiger, snow leopard, and Eurasian lynx at Parco Natura Viva, Italy. The study was made of two periods: the baseline, in which the zoo was closed, and the visitor presence period, in which the zoo was opened. Per period and per subject 12 30‐min observations were done. Continuous focal animal sampling method was used to collect behavior duration of the big cats. The main results of the study highlighted that, when visitors were present, all felids except for the female lynx were significantly more inactive than in the baseline. Moreover, despite interindividual and inter‐species variability in the significance level of findings, natural behaviors such as attentive behavior, exploration/marking, locomotion, and positive social interactions were performed more in the baseline than in the visitor presence period. Finally, when visitors were present, as the studied subjects experienced daily longer exposure to visitors, inactivity increased whereas individual species‐typical behaviors (e.g., locomotion) and positive social interactions decreased. Thus, visitors seem to partially alter the behavioral time‐budgets of the study big cats, increasing inactivity and decreasing the performance of species‐specific behavior, at least in some individuals.
Subject
Animal Science and Zoology,General Medicine
Cited by
1 articles.
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