Consumer demand for invertebrates is on the rise as their numbers in the wild dwindle. However, with the growing conservation efforts of modern zoos and aquariums, and evidence from over 300 studies showing that invertebrates...
All animals have the capacity to learn through operant conditioning and other types of learning, and as a result, zoos and other animal care facilities have shifted towards the use of positive reinforcement training to...
Over the decades, the use of environmental enrichment has evolved from a necessary treatment to a “best practice” in virtually all wildlife care settings. The breadth of this evolution has widened to include more complex...
The union or reunion of animals with social groups can be a challenging situation, and little has been published about it when solitary species are concerned. Therefore, the aim of the present study was two-fold...
Ferrets (Mustela putorius furo) are kept and used in multiple sectors of society, but little is known about how they are housed and what environmental enrichment (EE) they may benefit from. We aimed to help...
Across captive settings, nonhuman primates may develop an array of abnormal behaviors including stereotypic and self-injurious behavior. Abnormal behavior can indicate a state of poor welfare, since it is often associated with a suboptimal environment...
Behavior is the interface through which animals interact with their environments, and therefore has potentially cascading impacts on the health of individuals, populations, their habitats, and the humans that share them. Evolution has shaped the...
The study here presented provides preliminary data regarding social compatibility of an all-male group of five chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes), assessed by means of a social network analysis (SNA). The study was conducted at the Fundació...
Across a period of 54 months, several changes were made to the feeding protocols of 32 adult chimpanzees living at the Yerkes National Primate Research Center Field Station. Before implementing any changes in diet, baseline...
Improving captive environments for primates has been an important tool to enhance animal welfare. One method has been to provide primates with naturalistic vegetated enclosures to promote species-specific behaviors, enhancing interactions with their social and...