Understanding and Improving Animal Welfare NWPTAG WORKSHOP - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation
Understanding and Improving Animal Welfare NWPTAG WORKSHOP NOVEMBER 20, 2015 What is Animal Welfare? Animal Welfare refers to an animals collective physical, mental, and emotional states over a period of time, and is measured on a continuum
NWPTAG WORKSHOP NOVEMBER 20, 2015
Animal Welfare refers to an animal’s collective physical, mental, and emotional states over a period of time, and is measured on a continuum from good to poor.
AZA Animal Welfare Committee
An animal typically experiences good welfare when healthy, comfortable, well-nourished, safe, able to develop and express species-typical relationships, behaviors, and cognitive abilities, and not suffering from unpleasant states such as pain, fear, or distress. Because physical, mental, and emotional states may be dependent on one another and can vary from day to day, it is important to consider these states in combination with one another over time to provide an assessment of an animal’s overall welfare status.
From poor to excellent Can change at any time based on environmental, health or psychological factors We want to create a situation where animals not only experience good welfare, but thrive.
Poor welfare Excellent welfare
Perhaps the greatest stressor in populations of captive animals are those over which the animal has no control and from which they cannot escape
While many environmental enrichment strategies have undoubtedly improved the conditions of captivity (Bloomsmith and Else, 2005; Kuehn, 2002; Sorensen et al., 2004; Swaisgood et al., 2001), they have tended to underemphasize the influence of artificial environments on the sensory behavior of captive animals.
Sensory Environment
Restricted movement Inability to retreat or hide effectively Routine husbandry Restricted feeding and foraging Unusual social groupings Forced proximity to humans/predators/competitors Limited choices/control/predictability
environment
heterospecific or conspecific, familiar or unfamiliar
Personality is “behavioral differences across individuals that are consistent over time and across contexts or situations”. Variation along five dimensions:
Watters and Powell (2012)
Animal keepers are an important element of each animal’s environment, and the quality of the relationships between animal and keeper has an impact on the welfare of the animal. It is important to understand which aspects of these relationships influence individual well-being and careful consideration should be given to how individuals are affected by them.
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Zoo visitors can be a source of stress, a source of enrichment, or neutral for animals (Hosey, 2000). Whether zoo visitors cause stress depends on:
with animals
Robust literature that the presence of people in zoos changes animal behavior Animals do seem to start with a natural wariness of people (the degree of which may vary by species). Fear may be reduced through increased neutral or positive experience. Fear can be increased through interactions with negative consequences. Many animals are able to discriminate between different categories
Animals establish a generalized relationship with unfamiliar people (the zoo visitor).
Pizzutto et al. (2007)
“For many species human contact can, to a degree, substitute for contact with conspecifics.”
Environmental Enrichment for Captive Animals
Baker (2004)
Signage Education about the effects of auditory and visual stress on animals
Fernandez et al. (2009)
Retreats (Anderson et al., 2002) Visual barriers (Blaney and Wells, 2004) Control crowd numbers
Control over interactions with people Participation in training Early and frequent positive interactions Let the animal manage its exposure and proximity via retreat or hiding places. Visitor education Increased amount of time keepers spend with animals especially in structured activities like PRT One keeper vs lots of keepers
The greatest stressor in captive animals is the inability to exert meaningful choice and control.
Social
Environmental
behavioral needs
Preference testing
2010)
Consumer demand
strength; primates will work just as hard for social companionship.
Mammals Birds Reptiles/Amphibians Fish
Positive reinforcement training Environmental enrichment Cognitive challenges Unstructured human relationships Natural social groupings Habitat design
Choice tests Personality testing
Fission-fusion management Human relationships Common areas and private spaces Preference testing Mixed species groups
Scatter feeding Puzzle feeders Choice tests Operant tasks
Responsive environments Toys, objects to manipulate, novel items Hiding places, refuges Exhibit rotation
Learned helplessness Elevated or chronic stress Boredom Reproductive failure Abnormal behavior