Animal social structure is influenced by multiple socioecological factors. Of these, the links between changes to group demography through the arrival of new individuals and residents' social structure remain unclear. Across seven groups of captive...
There is much evidence in mammals and birds demonstrating the importance of providing sufficient space to allow captive animals to exhibit natural behaviours, however, little such evidence exists for reptiles. The aim of this study...
Providing a natural diet is a key component to improving animal welfare and potentially reducing stereotypic behaviours in captivity. Wild slow lorises (Nycticebus spp.) are threatened by illegal wildlife trade, and in Thailand, confiscations from...
The effect of olfactory stimuli as a means of environmental enrichment is underexplored in canids. The crab-eating fox is the most abundant wild canid in zoos, but few studies have addressed the reaction of this...
The white-naped mangabey is an endangered and rare zoo species, yet little is known concerning their welfare in captivity. The assessment of welfare should incorporate a net balance of negative and positive welfare behavioural indicators...
Despite no significant difference in wounding between bachelor and mixed-sex groups of western lowland gorillas (Gorilla gorilla gorilla) in zoological settings, anecdotal concerns around the frequency and severity of wounding in bachelor groups have perpetuated...
Environments that do not provide animals with appropriate stimuli may affect their welfare and reproduction, for example by precluding them from exhibiting their full behavioural repertoire. In this study, we sought to evaluate the effectiveness...
Animal personality, the consistent between-individual differences in e.g., risk-taking, exploration, antipredator or mating behaviours, has major impacts on the fitness of individuals in many species. Understanding how to quantify animal personality should help us predicting...
A top priority of modern zoos is to ensure good animal welfare (AW), thus, efforts towards improving AW monitoring are increasing. Welfare assessments are performed through more traditional approaches by employing direct observations and time-consuming...
Responses to stress are unavoidable, adaptive mechanisms in humans and non-human animals. However, in humans, chronic stress has been linked to poor health outcomes and early mortality. Allostatic load, the physiologic dysregulation that occurs when...