Many animals change behaviour in response to pathogenic infections. White-nose syndrome (WNS) is a fungal skin disease causing rapid declines of North American bats. Infection with Pseudogymnoascus destructans causes hibernating bats to arouse from torpor...
Enrichment is a powerful tool to improve the welfare of animals under human care. Stress‐related health and behavioral problems, as well as reproductive failure, are frequent in armadillos (Xenarthra, Cingulata, Dasypodidae) under human care, which...
Environmental enrichment in zoos and aquariums is often evaluated at two overlapping levels: published research and day‐to‐day institutional record keeping. Several authors have discussed ongoing challenges with small sample sizes in between‐groups zoological research and...
Gray short-tailed opossums are used in a wide variety of research in the areas of developmental biology, oncology, immunology, and comparative biology. Despite many frequent experimental manipulations of these animals under anesthesia, few studies to...
There is a lack of protocols specifically developed for the assessment of welfare of wild animals in captivity, even when it is known that providing good standards of welfare is important. The aim of this...
Zoos are required to maintain a high standard of animal welfare, and this can be assessed using a combination of resource-based and animal-based indices usually divided into behavioural indicators, physiological indicators and clinical/pathological signs. Modern...
Cognitive bias testing measures how emotional states can affect cognitive processes, often described using the “glass half-full/half-empty” paradigm. Classical or operant conditioning is used to measure responses to ambiguous cues, and it has been reported...
The field of zoo animal welfare science has developed significantly over recent years. However despite this progress in terms of scientific research, globally, zoo animals still face many welfare challenges. Recently, animal welfare frameworks such...
As recorded in domestic nonhuman animals, regular interactions between animals in zoos and keepers and the resulting relationship formed (human– animal relationship [HAR]) are likely to influence the animals’ behaviors with associated welfare consequences. HAR...
Environmental enrichment is a technique that may reduce the stress of nonhuman animals in captivity. Stress may interfere with normal behavioral expression and affect cognitive decision making. Noninvasive hormonal studies can provide important information about...