Once an animal has been removed from its natural habitat every effort should be made not only to simulate the natural environment but also to ensure that the animal displays ecologically valid behaviour (Forthman Quick, 1984). Neither natural settings nor natural behaviour can be duplicated in captivity; however, complex captive settings may discourage the development of abnormal behaviour, induce activity and facilitate normal social behaviour and reproduction (Clarke et al., 1982). Markowitz (1975-79,1982, cited in Forthman Quick, 1984) has agreed that captive animals should exert some form of control over their environment.
For captive primates, environmental enrichment may improve psychological well-being, as indicated by changes in the frequency of species-typical and abnormal behaviours. The effects of enrichment on physical well-being have also been examined, but little attention has been devoted to the relationship between enrichment and animal health. We therefore studied the health records of 98 rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta) to measure the effects that enrichment and social housing manipulations had on the number of veterinary treatments and days of therapy required by the monkeys.
At the University of Notre Dame we have a system in place that allows the principle investigators to utilize our trained laboratory animal technicians and registered veterinary technicians to perform routine animal procedures such as blood sampling.
The purpose of this study was to observe as many gorilla groups as possible and to compare their behaviour in different exhibits, social structures and visitor situation. Gorillas were studied in 15 zoos, they lived in 14 groups with male and female adults and immatures, 2 groups of adults without immatures, 3 adult pairs, 2 solitary silverbacks and several groups of immatures.
In July, Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) and Representatives Adam Schiff (D-CA), Jared Huffman (D-CA), and Suzan DelBene (D-WA) introduced the Strengthening Welfare in Marine Settings (SWIMS) Act (HR 8514/S 4740).
In April, the Prohibit Wildlife Killing Contests Act (HR 7398) was introduced in the House by Representative Steve Cohen (D-TN) to bar organizing, sponsoring, conducting, or participating in most types of wildlife killing contests on more than 500
Today the National Marine Fisheries Service announced a positive 60-day finding on a petition to designate the Sakhalin Bay-Amur River beluga whale population in the Sea of Okhotsk, Russia, as depleted under the US Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA). The petition was submitted by the Animal Welfare Institute (AWI), Whale and Dolphin Conservation (WDC), Cetacean Society International (CSI), and the International Marine Mammal Project (IMMP) of the Earth Island Institute, on April 23rd, 2014. The petition was submitted to seek additional protections for this beluga population, which is the principal target of an ongoing global trade in live whales for the captive display industry.
In September 2021, AWI, along with the Center for Biological Diversity and VIVA Vaquita, petitioned the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) to list the Atlantic humpback dolphin as endangered under the Endangered Species Act (ESA).
In the former administration’s final days, the US Fish and Wildlife Service published a rule that weakens the Migratory Bird Treaty Act (MBTA) by no longer penalizing individuals and corporations for the “incidental” killing of birds protected und
Recently, the U.S. Poultry & Egg Association teamed up with the National Association of SARA Title III Program Officials—an organization that represents emergency response and planning officials across all levels of government—to produce and disseminate a series of informational videos focused on emergency planning.
United Egg Producers (UEP), an industry group representing the interests of egg farmers throughout the United States, says it will seek to eliminate the culling of male chicks. Because male chicks cannot produce eggs—and other breeds are used to produce meat chickens—males of the egg-producing breeds have no economic value.
While most news for imperiled species is quite dire this year, North America’s largest flying bird is bucking the trend. California condors came frighteningly close to extinction: in 1982, just 22 birds survived in the wild.
Eight members of Congress were recognized yesterday by leading national conservation groups for their critical role in protecting the Endangered Species Act. The “Champions of the Endangered Species Act” reception featured former Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt and honored Senators Cory Booker (D-NJ), Barbara Boxer (D-CA), Tom Udall (D-NM), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), and House members Don Beyer (D-VA), Raúl Grijalva (D-AZ), Betty McCollum (D-MN), and Niki Tsongas (D-MA).
The bipartisan Ejiao Act would prohibit the transport, sale, and purchase within the United States of products containing ejiao and of donkeys and donkey hides for the production of ejiao.
US Rep. Don Beyer (D-VA) reintroduced the Ejiao Act Tuesday in the House of Representatives to ban the sale and trade of ejiao (donkey-hide gelatin) products in the United States.
The Department of Transportation’s Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) has published a proposed change to transportation regulations in order to reduce accidents and paperwork burdens.
Elephants were once a common sight throughout the Asian and African continents. Due to their prized tusks, however, they were hunted in massive numbers throughout the 19th century. Now, restrictions on ivory trade have allowed some populations to stabilize, although they remain severely depleted across the whole of their former ranges. They also face other threats from habitat destruction, continued poaching for ivory, meat and hides; trophy hunting; and removal because of conflicts with humans.
In the article beginning on page 6, we discuss the unrelenting slaughter of African elephants for their ivory. In the United States, import of African elephant ivory has been prohibited—via the African Elephant Conservation Act— since 1989, the same year that countries around the world enacted similar import bans. You can, however, import raw ivory into the United States from sport-hunted trophies.
One hundred years ago, Côte d’Ivoire—a nation that takes its name from the once-flourishing ivory trade that ran through its ports—was home to between 3,000 and 5,000 forest elephants.
In Elephants on the Edge, G.A. Bradshaw exposes how - through mass slaughter, poaching and capture - we have ravaged elephant populations, while drawing comparisons between the ways people and elephants respond to traumatic situations.
The Southern Weekly, one of China's most influential newspapers, published a front-page story about the widespread massacre of elephants for ivory, and of ivory consumption in China as the primary driver of the crisis.
The siege is getting worse. African elephants are being killed at a greater rate than at any time since the worldwide ban on the ivory trade was adopted in 1989. Every 15 minutes, on average, an elephant is killed illegally in Africa to feed an insatiable demand for ivory, principally from Asia.
Eloquence of the Sardine: Extraordinary Encounters Beneath the Sea by Bill François, a French physicist and naturalist, is full of fascinating and thought-provoking information about life beneath the waves. Through science and storytelling, François explores the lives of many sea creatures and the remarkable ways they live, communicate, reproduce, find food, play, and escape predators (including humans). Take, for instance, the amazing sardine, whose scales perfectly refract light to avoid detection from above, below, and to the side, and who live together in the thousands, leaderless but effortlessly in sync.
