Exploration of cultural norms and behavioural beliefs about zoo animal behaviour, welfare, ethics and husbandry practices in a sample of the international zoo community

Abstract

Beliefs influence the intentions of people to behave in certain ways towards animals. This study presents survey responses from 237 people working in zoos in China and Europe and describes their demographic characteristics. It explores their beliefs about zoo animal behaviour, welfare and ethical issues, and zoo practices, using a survey methodology. These beliefs may be influenced by individual demographic or cultural factors such as age, gender and region of employment, as well as experiential or situative 'norms' within the work environment. Beliefs were significantly influenced by the region of employment with Chinese respondents beliefs being significantly different to beliefs from respondents in the United Kingdom or the rest of Europe. Hierarchical cluster analysis of the survey generated clusters of people from both regions who indicated positive beliefs about zoo animal welfare as well as clu sters indicating a lack of understanding of some zoo animal welfare issues. In addition, a cluster suggesting cognitive dissonance between beliefs about animals welfare and zoo practices was generated from Chinese responses.Factor analysis identified that prioritisation of in-situ conservation within good animal welfare was a key feature in Chinese respondents, whereas European beliefs prioritising in-situ conservation were distinct from those on supporting good animal welfare. This paper identifies similarities and differences in beliefs about zoo animal welfare and zoo husbandry practices between Europe and China, and discusses the underlying norms and values that these beliefs may reflect.

Invisible Invertebrates: The Welfare of Invertebrates in Public Aquaria

“…Both Europe and North America had a greater number of keywords overall, despite Asia having a similar number of aquariums, suggesting cultural and societal ideology may play a role in how the public perceive welfare. When surveying Chinese and European zookeepers, Bacon et al [1] found that there was variation in welfare perception; it is possible a similar variation exists within the general public. This may also be reflected in the aquatic invertebrate comments, with corals having a greater representation in Asia than other regions due to their commercial importance for the region.…”

“…By creating a positive environment, the ability to understand the animal better would result in overall standards improving [47]. The human factor of good animal welfare in collections was summarized by Bacon et al [1], and one of the key findings was that the aquarium should consider the wellbeing of their staff as a function of welfare. Aquarists have a large influence on the organisms that they care for, and if their welfare is compromised then potentially so are the animals.…”

“…The definition of animal welfare has been considerably debated within the literature and is often adjusted depending on the lens of the observer [1][2][3]. Within zoos and aquariums, welfare is often based around Mellor's five domains model [4] which has five domains split into nutrition, environment, health, behavior and mental state.…”

“…Understanding of wild animal welfare and human input is still debated [1][2][3]7], particularly in species with limited knowledge of conditions in the wild and their life cycles. A captive environment may also contain different goals and husbandry settings than that Animals 2023, 13, 3620 2 of 11 of the wild.…”

“…However, some aspects of the five freedoms such as 'freedom from thirst' have little relevance for aquatic species. Within the aquarium and zoo community, Mellor's five domain model is the most popular [1]. Although useful for terrestrial vertebrates, its suitability for other species is still yet to be fully investigated [18,19].…”