Please enable JavaScript.

Coggle requires JavaScript to display documents.

There are Big Gaps in Our Knowledge, and thus Approach, to Zoo Animal…

- - - - Zoo environment provided might not meet their necessary needs.
        
        Cause a biased in the developments in animal welfare science towards the agricultural industry but not with zoo animal welfare due to the relatively new study of animal science.
        
        Thus, the knowledge and approach to zoo animal welfare has been founded on resolving problem that are not necessarily relevant to the industry.
        
        For example, attempting to reduce insults to animal welfare resulting from ever increasing
        intensification in production.
        
        Regardless of the two industries' different objectives, there is a lot to be learned from applying agricultural animal welfare concepts to the study of zoo animal welfare.
        
        There remain gaps in our knowledege of zoo animal welfare that need to be identified so that they can be filled and the welfare of zoo animals enhanced.
- - - - animal's understanding of their situation (positive/negative) is measured through their cognitive bias
    - - To control their conspecifics in zoos, recognise species that thrive in zoos and reproduce the conditions they are housed under.
      - Determine the needs of zoo animals and ensure that zoo animal care procedures are in place to meet those needs.
      - Considering animal's needs are useful and combined with direct measures of animal needs to develop proactive approach to welfare
        
        Measuring the needs of animals through observation and experimentation. "What they like or want" can provide a good indication of their mental state and motivation
        
        Ways to achieve in determining the needs of animals
        1. wild captive comparisons 2. preference testing 3. strength of motivation tests
        
        Replication of wild conditions and the stimulation of wild-type behaviors and biology in zoo
        
        Animals have evolved live in "wild conditions" & expression of "wild" behaviors is associated with positive affective experiences
        
        Animals who deviate from "wild" behaviors may develop abnormal behaviors in their place
        
        Wild animals have certainly adapted to selection pressures present in the wild.
        
        Using "wild" as a template for good management seems wrong - to animals that are diseased, in pain, starving or competing on a daily basis just to survive
        
        Experiments can be set-up that attempt to "ask the animal" what they want from their environment
        
        Through a series of elegant experiments, it can be established "how hard an animal is willing to work"
        
        "work"= the strength of motivation the animal has for the resource = how much they want it
        
        Possible to determine a hierarchy of their needs.
        
        Uses a standardized unit to measure animals' work and results can be compared across different experiments.
        
        By offering animals a choice between simultaneously presented resources
        
        These data can provide information about the animals' priorities and potentially how they can change over time, with experience, or in different circumstances.
        
        However, care is required when designing preference test and interpreting the results, as the value of the results is determined by the number & appropriateness of the resources offered.
- - - - Welfare indices were correlated with production performance while intensive farming is associated with compromised welfare and production.
        
        Most zoos have different targets and management to ensure behavioural and genetic integrity were preserved. However, the impact of the schemes are less likely to know as there are different goals targeted in for zoo and agriculture animals.
        
        zoo animals are expected to live full life
        
        ensure behavioral and genetic integrity are preserved so they will be good candidates for conservation schemes
        
        "Welfare by analogy" concept suggests knowledge of welfare in one species and can be used with related species with similar needs.
        
        Welfare by analogy also base on: absence or reduction of poor welfare equals to good welfare which is an overly simplistic assumption of animal welfare.
        
        Approach on recognizing poor welfare are visible (but not all true especially exotic species they seem not to display)
- - - - To compensate for this issue:
        
        "Rules of Thumb" are created and attempts made to mimic the animals' wild environment.
        
        The latter works on the assumption that animals in the wild have good welfare and simulation of a "wild habitat" will povide for the animals' needs and result in animals with good welfare.
        
        Overstimulating a timid or neophobic animal, on the other hand, may have negative consequences.
        
        Due to different reactions of different individuals or species to H&H variables, the standard procedures can be limited
- - - - Highly social species
      - Reduced risk of injury
      - Enhanced health
- - - - Free from discomfort
      - Free from fear and distress
      - Free from hunger and thirst
      - Free to express natural behaviour
      - Free from pain, injury or disease
- - - - Objective evidence generally unaffected by personal opinion.
    - - Animal keeper's opinion (subjective evidence) is important to improve the empirical approach.
  - - - Three main components of EBF
        
        Impact of all decisions should be monitored to gather evidence of successes and failures.
        
        Using practitioners' knowledge and skills to interpret evidence and thereby advance the field.
        
        There are several types of evidence that can be used to make decisions, but their reliability varies
  - - - Enrichment (responses to objects) provided to animals need to be observed to make sure they have positive effects on the animals’ behaviour
      - Shape of Enrichment and SPIDER models – a series of steps when implementing enrichment
        
        I. Clearly defining the goal of the enrichment.
        
        II. Provision of enrichment to meet this goal.
        
        III. Monitoring animal behaviours to see if the goal has been met.
        
        IV. If the goal is not attained, improvements to the enrichment are made.
    - - Assess the effect of new enclosures and enclosure modifications on zoo animal behaviour, including the utility of the space provided.