Intact carcasses as enrichment for large felids: Effects on on‐ and off‐exhibit behaviors

Abstract

Reducing stereotypic behaviors in captive animals is a goal for zoological institutions worldwide, and environmental enrichment is one tool commonly used to meet that end. Behavioral needs associated with feeding, however, are often neglected in large carnivores. To address these needs, I tested the effects of calf carcasses as enrichment for large felids. Over 14 weeks, I provided nine animals with up to seven intact carcasses. The cats were housed at Toledo Zoo, Potawatomi Zoo, and Binder Park Zoo. Animals were observed off and on exhibit for changes in feeding, natural, stereotypic, active, and inactive behaviors. I compared treatment behaviors with behaviors observed during a baseline period in which the animals were fed traditional processed diets. For these nine cats, carcass provision decreased off-exhibit stereotypic behaviors but had little impact on on-exhibit behaviors.

Effects of Environmental Enrichments on the Behaviors of Four Captive Jaguars: Individuality Matters

“…In fact, Sellinger & Ha (2005) demonstrated different responses between two captive jaguars exposed to public visitation and also Vidal et al (2016) found individual differences of three jaguars exposed to spice environmental enrichment. Moreover, these findings agree with studies evaluating environmental enrichment effects in other wild cat species, which found significant individual variability of response (Bond & Lindburg 1990, McPhee 2002, Van Metter et al 2008. Thus, we highlight the need to evaluate the environmental enrichments effects at an individual level, as each animal may respond in a particular way, being more or less affected by the environmental enrichments.…”

“…Considering wild cats, which are common animals in zoos expressing some kind of stereotype or much inactivity, deserving more attention to environmental enrichment programs, many studies have reported a significant individual variation of response when these animals are exposed to environmental enrichments (Bond & Lindburg 1990, Lyons et al 1997, McPhee 2002, Van Metter et al 2008, Vidal et al 2016. This individual response is so significant that other studies have even focused on the effects of enrichments on the behaviors of just one animal (e.g., Markowitz 1995, Walters 2003.…”

The effect of visitor number and spice provisioning in pacing expression by jaguars evaluated through a case study

“…While there is little doubt about the effectiveness of environmental enrichment on reducing stereotypic and abnormal behavior, the remaining challenge has been to determine suitable enrichment models for a given species. Different models have been introduced to felid enclosures, varying from novel food items or olfactory stimuli (Mellen and Shepherdson, 1997;McPhee, 2006;Bashaw et al, 2003;Wells and Egli, 2004;Skibiel et al, 2007;Quirke and O'Riordan, 2011;Resende et al, 2011) to objects or physical toys (Moreira et al, 2007). Until recently the provisioning of novel scents as enrichment alternatives for felids had been overlooked when compared to food items (Skibiel et al, 2007).…”

Assessing the efficacy of hair snares as a method for noninvasive sampling of Neotropical felids

“…According to WELLER & BENNETT (2001), captive animals are often sedentary and less engaged in exploratory behaviors than their wild counterparts, probably due to the lower complexity and higher previsibility of captivity. This can undermine the motivation, opportunity, or the necessity of certain behaviors (MCPHEE 2002). Because of this lack of stimuli, when new attractants are introduced into the captive environments, they can elicit stronger behavioral responses than those observed in wild animals (TANÁS & PISULA 2011) or in more complex enclosures.…”