Marina Salas

Royal Zoological Society of Antwerp · Centre for Research and Conservation

Self-directed behaviours (SDBs) are widely used as markers of emotional arousal in primates, and are commonly linked to negative arousal, or are used as indicators of stress or poor welfare. However, recent studies suggest that not all SDBs have the same function. Moreover, lateralisation in the production of these behaviours has been suggested to...

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 data collection that require trained specialists. These limitations may be overcome through autom...

The evaluation of zoo animals’ personalities can likely lead to a range of benefits, including improving breeding success, creating stable social groups, and designing and developing environmental enrichment programmes. The goal of this study was to use caretakers scores to evaluate personality in bottlenose dolphins and to assess the reliability o...

Decisions on environmental enrichment programmes are sometimes based on the assumption that non-natural or artificial looking items negatively affect visitor experiences. In this study, we developed a questionnaire to assess zoo visitor attitudes towards enrichment appearance in an outdoor walk-through enclosure for ring-tailed lemurs (Lemur catta)...

Cortisol is often measured as a marker for stress. Therefore, a profound validation of the time-lag between the stressor and the increase and peak in cortisol levels is needed. No study measured both the urinary and salivary cortisol time-lag after a psychological stressor. In this study, we used a frequent sampling study design to (1) describe the...

Environmental enrichment is widely used to improve the quality of life of animals under human care. To successfully implement enrichment programs, it is important to evaluate their effect in different enclosure types since housing conditions may change depending on external factors, such as husbandry, management, or seasonal variation. This study i...

Many factors can lead to an inadequate development of piglets during their first days of life, including poor maternal behavior, which can be due to pain caused by farrowing, and reduced colostrum ingestion. This study investigates the action of meloxicam administered orally at farrowing on piglet weight gain and immunity transfer. Thirty-five mult...

Abnormal behaviours are often used as a welfare indicator in zoo-housed great apes. While previous studies report on the occurrence of abnormal behaviours in zoo-housed chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes), there is currently a lack of knowledge about such behaviours in the closely related bonobo (Pan paniscus). Here we report on the prevalence, diversity...

The poultry red mite (PRM), Dermanyssus gallinae , a potential vector of pathogens to animals and humans, causes impaired bird welfare. A study investigated changes in behavioural variables, physiological biomarkers, and health parameters following acaricidal treatment of PRM infestation of laying hens on a commercial farm. Mite traps determined th...

Abstract: Welfare in horses consists of good biological functioning, feeling well and having control over the expression of natural behaviour. We observed two herds to understand the spatial and social dynamics within the herds and the role of rank in relation to the expression of these behaviours. We also performed a behavioural isolation experim...

We used a personality questionnaire to assess temperament traits in 47 bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) in six groups in five different centres. Our questionnaire was based on the Five Factor Model of Personality already used with dolphins in other studies and consisted of a list of adjectives. Twenty-four people (raters) were asked to scor...

Simple Summary Animal welfare is gaining attention regarding the conservation of species not only due to ethical and legal reasons but also because optimal welfare can ensure stable and healthy populations. Currently, there is a lack of protocols that help to objectively assess welfare of wild animals in captivity. In this study, we have developed...

Ensuring welfare in captive wild animal populations is important not only for ethical and legal reasons, but also to maintain healthy individuals and populations. An increased level of social behaviors such as aggression can reduce welfare by causing physical damage and chronic stress to animals. Recently, cortisol in hair has been advanced as a no...

Animal welfare is a priority for modern zoos and science-based welfare indicators are needed. Welfare indicators can be divided into environment-based and animal-based indicators. Environment-based indicators are usually easier to measure, but only animal-based indicators provide direct information on the welfare of animals and are therefore prefer...

Providing good standards of welfare to wild animals kept in captivity is important for both ethical and legal reasons. However, there is a lack of protocols especially developed for the assessment of welfare in those cases, and these should be a main concern for those centres and institutions that keep wild animals. The aim of this study was the d...

The activation of the hypothalamic pituitary adrenocortical (HPA) axis is responsible for the stress response, together with other systems. The HPA axis releases glucocorticoids, such as cortisol, as part of the endocrine mechanism for self-protection of the body in presence of a stressor. However, chronic or long-lasting stress, and the subsequent...