Francesca Bandoli

Società Zoologica di Pistoia Srl · Research and Conservation

Environmental enrichment is a management tool used to promote positive animal welfare by stimulating species-specific behaviors and providing animals with opportunities to exert choice and control over the environment. Our study aimed to evaluate the combined effect of three enrichment types and environmental/individual factors (i.e., individual ag...

Nowadays, most zoos have taken prominent and active positions in endangered species conservation and educating visitors about the value of biodiversity. However, to be effective and trusted in their mission, they must act ethically and have a good reputation. Yet, the drivers that can influence their reputation are still little investigated, and th...

Animal–Visitor Interactions (AVI) are activities offered by zoos and other tourism facilities, in which visitors come into close contact with animals. These activities can promote conservational and educational content, raise conservation mindedness and responsibility for the environment and animal welfare, but if not properly managed can jeopardiz...

The ability to vary the characteristics of one's voice is a critical feature of human communication. Understanding whether and how animals change their calls will provide insights into the evolution of language. We asked to what extent the vocalizations of penguins, a phylogenetically distant species from those capable of explicit vocal learning, a...

Compared to other primate taxa, hand preference in strepsirrhines has been poorly investigated and the available studies have often produced conflicting results. Thanks to their remarkable plasticity in foraging and postural habits, ring-tailed lemurs (Lemur catta) represent a key model species to examine manual lateralisation. We video-recorded 23...

Zoos and aquaria have progressively evolved into conservation centres aimed at conserving biodiversity through educational, recreational, research and integrated conservation activities. Their work is based on a strong cooperation at national and international level, that enables the collaborative management of hundreds of thousands of animals and...

The essay focuses on the tight connection between intensive farming and animal and human health to show how our actions can compromise the welfare of millions of animals and lead to impressive cascading effects. The harsh times we are facing due to the outbreak of Covid-19 constantly reminds us of the power of this connection. Hopefully, it will us...

Presentation selected by the Centre for Animal Welfare - University of Winchester and available on the institution's YouTube Channel at: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLttO61_1BU7dlhxN_74aSh5NsDocPJm8t&fbclid=IwAR1RoUVwI9dreyIWAMC-pjFI7rj4G52UePL4-SNCzKa594SWjqTd0wk6xFQ

Information compression is a general principle of human language: the most frequent words are shorter in length (Zipf's Law of Brevity) and the duration of constituents decreases as the size of the linguistic construct increases (Menzerath-Altmann Law). Vocal sequences of non-human primates have been shown to conform to both these laws, suggesting...

One of the most productive behavioural domains to study visual communication in mammals is social play. The ability to manage play–fighting interactions can favour the development of communicative modules and their correct decoding. Due to their high levels of social cohesion and cooperation, slender-tailed meerkats (Suricata suricatta) are a very...

Animal welfare can vary over an individual's lifespan and can differ between individuals of the same group. Long-term data collection carried out integrating various welfare parameters play a key role in assessing the quality of life of zoo-housed species. This project aimed to monitor the welfare status of the Asian elephants hosted at Pistoia Zoo...

The aim of this research was to evaluate the effect of two types of enrichments on lion night-time behaviour. The study involved a pair of adult African lions (Panthera leo) hosted at Pistoia Zoo. Behavioural data were recorded over a 3-month period, from December 2016 to February 2017, while the subjects were in their indoor quarters. A within-sub...

The red panda (Ailurus fulgens) is an Asian endangered species which has been included in a EAZA European Endangered Species Programme since 1985. The European population has grown significantly over the last years. Since 2013 single sex pairs and groups have been introduced and breeding has been limited to avoid surplus. Red pandas are essentially...

The African penguin (Spheniscus demersus) is an endangered seabird species endemic to southern Africa. Zoos contribute to its protection supporting in-situ conservation projects and participating in captive breeding programmes. Studies carried out in zoos can provide key information evaluating which factors can influence penguin welfare and reprodu...