Vicky Melfi

Hartpury University

This chapter considers the types of animal–visitor interactions (AVIs) offered by zoos in terms of the visitor experience. A number of variables are proposed that may be used to categorize AVIs from a visitor perspective. This includes a discussion on how each of these variables may affect the visitor experience, including which visitors choose to...

It is common for zoos in the UK to offer opportunities for visitors to interact with animals in the form of ‘Meet and Greet’ (M&G) experiences; which may include feeding, petting and posing for photographs. There is limited research investigating the impact of these experiences on the animals or people involved, particularly in terms of the message...

The risk of injury to canine flyball competitors has been noted as similar to that reported for canine agility, affecting approximately one third of competitors throughout their careers. To date, no studies have examined whether elements such as consistently turning in one direction during the box turn are associated with specific types of injuries...

This chapter looks at the behaviour of animals as they respond to their environments. It specifically refers here to zoos. Ethograms are referred to as a catalogue of all kinds of behaviours seen in animals of a particular species. The chapter discusses major kinds of learning such as habituation, classical conditioning, operant conditioning, and i...

This chapter focuses on the health of zoo animals. It discusses guidelines and legislation regarding the health of zoo animals, by referencing legislation in the UK and the European Union, such as the Balai Directive, European Endangered Species Programmes, and Species Survival Plans. Additionally, the chapter highlights the role of zoo staff in ca...

This chapter discusses zoo research. It highlights the significance of zoo research with reference to the discovery of political behaviours in chimpanzees. Moreover, the chapter notes the various ways that research is being carried out in zoos such as applied studies, field-based conservation, and operational researches. It also mentions the resear...

This chapter focuses on the regulatory framework that zoos have to operate within. It gives a brief introduction on legislation, laws, and global regulations. The chapter also discusses the UK’s devolved zoo legislation. It discusses various items of zoo legislation such as the 1973 Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) wi...

This chapter explains the identification and record-keeping of animals. It highlights the importance of keeping records such as maintaining health and welfare and aiding in conservation for captive management programmes. The chapter discusses the science behind binomial nomenclature and taxonomy. It includes a discussion on giving a temporary or pe...

This chapter focuses on the impact and influence of people in zoos. It presents zoos as major attractions with reference to statistics on zoo visitors across the world. It also mentions the aims of zoos, which revolve around raising awareness and educating the public in subjects such as conservation and animals. The chapter then notes formal and in...

This chapter focuses on the concept of conservation in zoos. Conservation of endangered species is one of the major goals of accredited zoos. The chapter defines conservation biology as the study of methods for maintaining biodiversity. It highlights the role of zoos in the conservation of biodiversity by referencing maintenance of captive stocks,...

This chapter concludes the book. The evidence-based approach to zoo science extends beyond providing a basis for animal management and other activities. The chapter introduces possible careers in zoos such as zookeeper, zoo veterinarian, zoo veterinary nurse, assistant, and technician. It also presents the challenges for the future of zoos such as...

This chapter focuses on small population management. It starts by examining the concept behind reproductive biology and then discusses genetics and endocrinology. Next, the chapter look at various relationships between animals such as mating systems, breeding, and parenting, while exploring the issues and constraints on reproduction in captivity. I...

This chapter focuses on animal welfare, which is defined as the study of an animal’s quality of life. The chapter lists environment, behaviour restrictions, and adaptation to captivity as factors affecting the welfare of zoo animals. It examines the indices used to evaluate zoo animal welfare such as life-history traits, self-directed behaviours, h...

This chapter focuses on the feeding and nutrition of zoo animals. It discusses feeding ecology while looking at different categories of animals such as omnivores, carnivores, and herbivores. The chapter also discusses basic nutritional theory alongside the dietary requirements of animals, covering metabolizable energy. It introduces Zootrition asa...

This chapter focuses on environmental enrichment. It begins by discussing the evolution of enrichment as a concept. It explains that behavioural enrichment aims to successfully stimulate desirable behaviours, increase activity, and provide an easy method for monitoring the health of zoo animals. The chapter highlights the aims and goals of enrichme...

This chapter explores the history, philosophy, and ethics of zoos. It starts with a basic definition of zoos before going through the history of ancient menageries. It mentions the Roman gladiatorial menageries and royal European menageries. Then, the chapter discusses the development of modern zoos by using various accredited zoos as examples, suc...

This chapter looks at the accommodation and maintenance of animals in zoos. It explores the advancements in enclosure designs that cover the needs of animals, keepers, and zoo visitors. The chapter also examines the evolution of enclosure function, human-animal contact, basic housing, climate control, barriers, and safety. It explains the features...

Flyball is a fast-paced, high-energy canine sport which has received negative press regarding the potential for injury, and possible welfare implications for canine competitors. Whilst frequency of injury within the sport has been investigated, evidence gaps remain regarding cause. The aim of this study was therefore to identify risk factors for in...

Animal-visitor interactions are common in captive-wildlife tourism settings, but there is a lack of research exploring what is on offer. This study defines and examines ‘Meet & Greet’ animal experiences in UK zoos within the context of the wider wildlife tourism industry, considering the differences between semi-contrived and fully-contrived intera...

Behaviour problems are a leading reason for dogs being relinquished to rescue centres across the world every year. The aim of this study was to investigate whether free behavioural advice would be accepted at the point of an owner requesting to relinquish their dog for behavioural reasons. The call records of 1131 relinquishment requests were revie...

The bushmeat trade, or the trade in wild animals for meat, is a primary threat to wildlife and ecosystems in Sulawesi, Indonesia. Hunting for trade and consumption can hasten the local extirpation of vulnerable species, such as fruit bats and the protected babirusa and Sulawesi crested black macaque. This study provides a much‐needed step in unders...

Free-range exhibits are used by zoos to allow visitors to experience or interact with animals in a semi-natural setting; close interactions with animals have been shown to increase empathy and contribute to conservation outcomes, and as such zoos are increasingly implementing free-range style exhibits to facilitate this goal. We aimed to investigat...

Little penguins (Eudyptula minor), or Kororā in Māori, show variation in their behavioural responses towards zoo visitors in Australian zoos. We experimentally examined the effects of visitor presence on the behaviour and stress physiology of little penguins at Wellington Zoo, New Zealand. The two treatments were: (1) Visitor presence – the exhibit...

This study identified and compared the attitudes of visitors toward zoo-housed little penguins, their enclosure and visitor experience that may influence the way visitors behave toward little penguins at two Australian zoos. Visitor attitudes were assessed using an anonymous questionnaire, targeting visitor beliefs, and experiences, where visitors...

Studies on the effects of visitors on zoo animals have shown mixed findings and as a result, the manner in which visitors affect zoo animals remains unclear for many species, including a rarely studied taxa such as penguins. Penguins are a common zoo-housed species and have been shown to display huddling, vigilance and avoidance towards zoo visitor...

Zoos worldwide are visited by great numbers of people, and many of these visitors prefer to see large, rare mammals, the so-called charismatic megafauna. Zoos and the researchers who use them also appear to prioritise these species, as evidenced by the number of scientific publications which investigate the welfare of charismatic rather than non-ch...

The serval (Leptailurus serval) is a small African felid that is well represented in zoos and often serves as an animal ambassador in encounter programs with zoo visitors. The impact on serval welfare in relation to such programs has not been investigated to date, and the aim of this study was to assess short-term welfare effects of varying levels...

This accessible, up-to-date book on animal training in a zoo/aquaria context provides a unified approach to zoo animal learning, bringing together the art and science of animal training. Written by experts in academia and working zoos, it incorporates the latest information from the scientific community along with current best practice, demystifyin...

One of the first theories or concepts university undergraduates studying an animal behaviour degree come across in their academic careers is likely to be Tinbergen's four ‘questions’ relating to animal behaviour. The four questions can be broadly split into two categories; proximate and ultimate explanations for behaviour. This chapter focuses on t...

Training provides zoo professionals with a tool by which they can effectively manipulate the behaviour of animals in their care. This chapter clarifies how animal welfare science can be used to better understand the impact of training; enable zoo professionals to take an evidence‐based approach to whether training is the best tool for a given a sit...

Some people, such as vets, may be a bit more familiar than visitors, but not as familiar as keepers. A keeper undertaking routine husbandry procedures might inadvertently send direct signals to the animal, to which the animal will then respond. Nature, frequency and type of these human–zoo‐animal interactions all provide fruitful opportunities for...

The relationship between inadequate foraging opportunities and the expression of oral repetitive behaviors has been well documented in many production animal species. However, this relationship has been less-well examined in zoo-housed animals, particularly avian species. The expression of oral repetitive behavior may embody a frustrated foraging r...

Understanding visitor attitudes toward zoo animals can inform the way zoos manage visitor-animal interactions by identifying the factors that may influence visitors and the way visitors interact with animals. Consequently, we investigated the relationship between visitor attitudes and penguin behavior and the effects of regulating visitor-penguin i...

Zookeepers often report strong attachment (bonds) with animals in their care. This paper reports a qualitative study of how keepers perceived these animals; the aim was to explore keepers’ experiences of bonding and how these related to the work done in zoos. Respondents were drawn from a large sample participating in a survey of zoo professionals;...

There are many commonalities in human–animal interactions (HAIs) and human–animal relationships (HARs), which enable us to build a framework to better understand them. Thinking about HAIs and HARs collectively also enables us to consider the costs and benefits of them to both humans and animals, and society more widely. On balance, positive HAIs an...

This document aims to provide an authoritative source of species related conservation information available to natural resource managers, conservationists and decision makers. It is hoped that it will inform and guide future conservation activities for M. nigra and contribute to sympatric biodiversity conservation. Chapter Five provides a time boun...

Repeated interactions within individual human and animal dyads can lead to the establishment of human–animal relationships (HARs), which may vary in quality from good to bad, defined in terms of the positivity (e.g., friendly contact, play) or negativity (e.g., aggression) of the interactions on which they are based. Particularly good HARs can be r...

The personality trait of curiosity has been shown to increase welfare in humans. If this positive welfare effect is also true for non-humans, animals with high levels of curiosity may be able to cope better with stressful situations than their conspecifics. Before discoveries can be made regarding the effect of curiosity on an animal’s ability to c...

Enclosure layout and novel object placement Layouts of enclosures and novel object placement. Objects identified as moving (M), stationary (S) and mirror (X). a) little penguins b) Barbary sheep c) star tortoises d) ring tailed lemurs e)red-tailed black cockatoos f) red kangaroos.

Loud or aversive noise is a key factor that may stress animals in zoological institutions. Many zoos host concerts in their grounds, and this practice is likely to expose resident animals to loud noises. Few studies have explored the effect of concerts and events on animals in zoological institutions. Here, the behaviour of two Domestic dogs Canis...

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 formation requires that zoo animals distinguish between familiar and unfamiliar people. Th...

Chimpanzees in laboratory colonies experience more wounds on weekdays than on weekends, which has been attributed to the increased number of people present during the week; thus, the presence of more people was interpreted as stressful. If this were also true for primates in zoos, where high human presence is a regular feature, this would clearly b...

Stockmanship is a term used to describe the management of animals with a good stockper-son someone who does this in a in a safe, effective, and low-stress manner for both the stock-keeper and animals involved. Although impacts of unfamiliar zoo visitors on animal behaviour have been extensively studied, the impact of stockmanship i.e familiar zoo k...

Comparative studies of primate personality offer informative insights into the evolutionary origins of personality structure in primate species. Primate personality research has, however, focused on a limited number of species. We investigated personality in three relatively understudied species: Sulawesi black crested macaques (Macaca nigra), Barb...

Human-animal interactions (HAI), which may lead to human-animal relationships (HAR), may be positive, neutral, or negative in nature. Zoo studies show that visitors may be stressful, may have no effect, or may be enriching. There is also evidence that good HARs set up between animals and their keepers can have positive effects on animal welfare. Ho...

A number of prominent theories suggest that hypervigilance and attentional bias play a central role in anxiety disorders and PTSD. It is argued that hypervigilance may focus attention on potential th

The study of human-animal interactions (HAI), and the resulting human-animal relationships (HARs) and bonds (HABs) which are set up as a consequence, is currently a topical issue in comparative psychology. Here we review the HAI/HAR/HAB literature to detect the main publication trends, and to identify the predominant research themes in this area. R...

The Sulawesi crested black macaque Macaca nigra is a Critically Endangered primate found naturally only on the northern peninsula of Sulawesi, Indonesia. The species has undergone an apparent decline of >80%, attributed to habitat loss and hunting, since the first surveys were undertaken in the 1970s. The IUCN Red List assessment excludes an introdu...

Husbandry training of zoo animals (training) has been associated with many benefits, and indisputably is a valuable tool; training facilitates movement of animals within their environment, and participation in husbandry and medical procedures. Training has also been considered to be enriching. With few exceptions systematic empirical data have not...

Zoo Animals starts with an introduction to the topic. It then moves to look at the history and philosophy of zoos: why do we have zoos? The book explains that, since there is a certain amount of regulation associated with zoos, zoos have to consider animal identification and record-keeping, housing and husbandry, and animal welfare in their work. I...

Environmental enrichment (EE) is an integral aspect of modern zoo animal management but, empirical evaluation of it is biased toward species housed in single-species groups. Nocturnal houses, where several nocturnal species are housed together, are particularly overlooked. This study investigated whether three species (nine-banded armadillos, Dasyp...

Gibbons are somewhat overlooked or atleast undervalued. When referenced, peopleconsider a generic gibbon, which usuallyincludes recognition of their unique anatomyand use of brachiation, sophisticated commu-nication and singing bouts, but does not dojustice to the most species-rich group of apes(see Thomas Geissmann’s Gibbon ResearchLab. at http://...

Some human-animal relationships can be so positive that they confer emotional well-being to both partners and can thus be viewed as bonds. In this study, 130 delegates at zoo research and training events completed questionnaires in which they were asked about their professional work in the zoo and whether they believed they had established bonds wi...

Many zoos take part in captive‐management programmes for gibbon species, which contribute to the conservation of this highly threatened taxon. Eight gibbon species are represented in captive‐management programmes globally, although the numbers held are highly biased towards only two species, which fill most of the space available in zoos. The other...

All zoos and aquariums aim to maintain animals with good welfare. Empirical evidence has demonstrated that various activities, described collectively as behavioural husbandry (BH), are associated with good animal welfare, so a lot of zoos now integrate BH into many of their captive animal management regimes. The widespread implementation of BH seem...

The Island of Sulawesi is the largest in the Wallacea region, a biodiversity hotspot where Asian and Australasian flora and fauna met and merge. Wallacea is one of 25 regions described as a biodiversity hotspot; designation is attributed to areas with a high degree of endemism and where 70% of primary vegetation has already been lost, namely due to...

There are gaps in knowledge that hinder our ability within zoos to provide good animal welfare. This does not mean that zoos cannot or do not provide good welfare, only that currently this goal is hindered. Three reasons for these gaps are identified as: (1) there is an emphasis on the identification and monitoring of indicators that represent poor...

It is a noisy world. In the wild, there are lots of animals filling the airwaves with their vocalisations. In zoos, there are the routine noises associated with everyday zoo operations, for example, cleaning, visitors, neighbouring species calling to another, and also the less routine noises created by construction work or social events. Few stud...

Trichuris spp. infect the majority of captive primate species along with an estimated 1049 million people worldwide, making it an important zoonosis [Stephenson, L. S., Holland, C. V., & Cooper, E. S. Parasitology, 121(Suppl.), S73–S95, 2000]. We investigated the efficacy of methods used to evaluate the prevalence of Trichuris spp. in 2 groups (n =...

Research suggests that feeding carcasses to large carnivores in zoos is beneficial, because it promotes natural behaviours, reduces abnormal behaviour and is not detrimental to health. On the other hand, it has been suggested that visitors perceive carcass feeding negatively. The feeding of live prey to carnivores is even more controversial and eve...

In this study we tested the hypothesis that the process of training a non-human primate (NHP) affects it's general behavior patterns, outside of training. A group of Abyssinian colobus monkeys (Colobus guereza, n = 8), housed at Paignton Zoo, UK, were observed for four 12-day periods. Behaviors were noted prior to training, using positive reinforce...

Zoos provide a unique and valuable resource for primate research. Indeed, previous analyses of zoo research have shown that non-human primates are favoured as subjects and the study of welfare and conservation rank high on those topics studied [Hardy, D.F., 1996. Current research activities in zoos. In: Kleiman, D.G., Allen, M.E., Thompson, K.V., L...

The Primates are a group of particular interest to us because of our own taxonomic position within that order; we share the order with nearly 250 other species, who range through tropical and subtropical regions of the world (Rowe, 1996). However, at least half of those species are of conservation concern, with some 20% being in IUCN’s most endange...

We suggest that many modern and expensive zoo enclosures do not meet the needs of the animals as well as they do those of zoo visitors and staff. We believe that this is due to two reasons: first, that the visitor experience has become the overwhelming consideration in the design process and secondly, that when animal needs are considered they tend...

Visitors to zoos make judgements about animal welfare on the basis of what they see during their visit. There has been a considerable amount of research and debate surrounding the use of enclosure style and/or animal behavior to act as indicators of animal welfare. There are assumptions, supported by some studies but contradicted by others, that na...

One aim of environmental enrichment techniques is to replicate 'wild-like' behaviour in captivity. In this study. three captive troops of Sulawesi crested black macaques (Macaca nigra) were each observed for 100 h in large naturalistic enclosures. Activity budgets constructed from these observations were compared with published data collected from...