Vicky Melfi

Hartpury University

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...

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...

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...

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://...

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...