The welfare problems of wide-ranging Carnivora reflect naturally itinerant lifestyles

Abstract

Carnivora with naturally small home ranges readily adjust to the evolutionarily new environment of captivity, but wider-ranging species seem prone to stress. Understanding why would advance both collection planning and enclosure design. We therefore investigated which aspects of wide-ranging lifestyles are key. We identified eight correlates of home range size (reflecting energetic needs, movement, intra-specific interactions, and itinerant lifestyles). We systematically assessed whether these correlates predict welfare better than range size per se , using data on captive juvenile mortality (from 13 518 individuals across 42 species) and stereotypic route-tracing (456 individuals, 27 species). Naturally itinerant lifestyles (quantified via ratios of daily to annual travel distances) were found to confer risk, predicting greater captive juvenile losses and stereotypic time-budgets. This finding advances our understanding of the evolutionary basis for welfare problems in captive Carnivora, helping explain why naturally sedentary species (e.g. American mink) may breed even in intensive farm conditions, while others (e.g. polar bears, giant pandas) can struggle even in modern zoos and conservation breeding centres. Naturally itinerant lifestyles involve decision-making, and strategic shifts between locations, suggesting that supplying more novelty, cognitive challenge and/or opportunities for control will be effective ways to meet these animals' welfare needs in captivity.