Reptile behaviour and welfare are understudied in comparison with mammals. In this study, behavioural data on three species (Astrochelys radiata, Stigmochelys pardalis, Aldabrachelys gigantea) of tortoises were recorded before and after an environmental change which was anticipated to be positive in nature. The environmental changes differed for each population, but included a substantial increase in enclosure size, the addition of substrate material, and a change in handling procedure. A tortoise-specific ethogram was created to standardise data collection. Focal behaviour sampling was used to collect behavioural data. Changes in the duration of performance of co-occupant interaction and object interaction in the leopard (Stigmochelys pardalis) and Aldabra (Aldabrachelys gigantea) tortoises were observed following the environmental changes. The Shannon–Weiner diversity index did not yield a significant increase after the changes but had a numerical increase which was relatively greater for the leopard tortoise group, which had experienced the greatest environmental change. The leopard tortoises also demonstrated changes in a greater number of behaviours compared to the other species, and this was sustained over the study period. However, this included a behaviour indicative of negative affect: aggression. Whilst we are unable to conclude that welfare was improved by the management changes, there are suggestions that behavioural diversity increased, and some promotion of positive social behaviours occurred.

Reptile behaviour and welfare are understudied in comparison with mammals. In this study, behavioural data on three species of tortoises were recorded before and after an environmental change which was anticipated to be positive in nature. The environmental changes differed for each population, but included a substantial increase in enclosure size, the addition of substrate material, and a change in handling procedure. A tortoise-specific ethogram was created to standardise data collection. Focal behaviour sampling was used to collect behavioural data. Changes in the duration of performance of co-occupant interaction and object interaction in the leopard (Stigmochelys pardalis) and Aldabra (Aldabrachelys gigantea) tortoises were observed following the environmental changes. The Shannon-Weiner’s diversity index did not yield a significant increase after the changes but had a numerical increase which was relatively greater for the leopard tortoise group, which had experienced the greatest environmental change. The leopard tortoises also demonstrated changes in a greater number of behaviours compared to the other species, and this was sustained over the study period. However, this included a behaviour indicative of negative affect; aggression. Whilst we are unable to conclude that welfare was improved by the management changes, there are suggestions that behavioural diversity increased, and some promotion of positive social behaviours occurred.

Review question/ Objective: How have stimulus preference tests been designed in applied animal settings? The objective is to examine how repeated tests of stimulus choices are designed in non-laboratory captive animal environments. A focus of this review will be the type of preference test used (e.g. paired-choice), stimulus items used (e.g. food items), the setting (e.g. Zoo), the taxa of animal (e.g. canids), and the type of data collected (e.g. latency). Inclusion criteria: The inclusion criteria include primary, peer-reviewed articles on captive animals, utilising a repeated measurement of preferences of two or more stimuli or events in an applied captive setting (i.e., outside of laboratory conditions or the field). The items must be external stimuli or events. Methods: An online search of Web of Science, PubMed, and Scopus will be conducted. In addition, a supplementary Google Scholar search will be added. The Google Scholar search is to ensure the comprehensive collection of relevant peer-reviewed studies.