Using environmental enrichment to reduce the expression of abnormal behaviours in Greater rhea Rhea americana at Belo Horizonte Zoo

Abstract

Animals kept by zoos may express abnormal behaviours that are indicators of poor welfare. Environmental enrichment is a technique of providing items to animals that stimulate the expression of normal behaviours. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of providing simple environmental enrichment in the reduction of the expression of abnormal behaviour in captive‐born Greater rhea Rhea americana at Belo Horizonte Zoo, south‐eastern Brazil. As enrichment, fruit and vegetables were scatter fed to a group of seven birds from April to September 2009, and the behaviour of the birds was recorded using scan sampling with instantaneous recording of behaviour every 1 minute for 1 hour daily (90 hours of observation). The study was divided into three phases: baseline, enrichment and post‐enrichment. The abnormal behaviours ‘pacing’, ‘eating faeces’ and ‘escaping behaviour’ reduced during the enrichment phase, but only the first two behaviours differed significantly between the phases; ‘walking’ and ‘foraging’, both positive behaviours, increased during the enrichment phase. These results showed that the implementation of simple environmental enrichment can stimulate the Greater rhea to exhibit more natural behaviours and improve their welfare.

Impacts of food-based enrichment on behaviour and physiology of male greater rheas (Rhea Americana, Rheidae, Aves)

“…Male greater rheas walked, walked alert, stood alert, and foraged more after the provision of environmental enrichment and decreased the exhibition of abnormal behaviours; the same result has been observed in other studies with ratites and other birds (Meehan et al, 2003(Meehan et al, , 2004Christensen & Nielsen, 2004;Dias et al, 2011;Azevedo et al, 2013a). In all of these studies, environmental enrichment was used to stimulate foraging in animals.…”

“…During enrichment use (enrichment phase), the same quantities of the normal diet continued to be offered to the birds in the feeder. Enrichment items were chosen based on Azevedo et al (2013a), which showed that new palatable food items are rewarding for greater rheas. The study was divided into three phases of 30 h: baseline (birds with no enrichment), enrichment (when the enrichment items were available to the birds) and post-enrichment (birds with no enrichment, when conditions returned to those of the baseline) (Young, 2003).…”

“…Environmental enrichment is a set of techniques designed to improve the quality of life of animals kept in captivity, seeking to identify and provide the necessary environmental stimuli for their physical and psychological welfare (Shepherdson et al, 1998;Young, 2003). Foodbased enrichment has been proven to be effective in stimulating animals and reducing distress, because the acquisition of food is a highly-motivated behaviour and is self-rewarding (Young, 2003;Vasconcellos et al, 2009;Clark & Melfi, 2012;Azevedo et al, 2013a).…”

Influence of the rearing system on yolk corticosterone concentration in captive Greater Rheas (Rhea americana)

“…In this study, for example, the lack of natural pastures in the pen with bare ground of IRS could be perceived by Greater Rhea females as a stressful condition that affected their natural foraging behavior. It has been shown that environmental enrichment (fruits and vegetables scattered around the enclosure) reduced the abnormal behaviors in captive Greater Rheas and increased their time allocated to foraging and walking (Azevedo et al, ). The Greater Rhea is a highly selective feeder both in captivity (Bazzano et al, ) and in the wild (Martella et al, ); therefore, a rearing system that facilitates the development of the normal foraging behavior in females might reduce stress and optimize their welfare.…”

Influence of environmental enrichment on the behavior and physiology of mice infected by Trypanosoma cruzi

“…However, infected mice showed only a slight increase in activity, and this could be a direct reflection of infection with T. cruzi, as this parasite increases lethargy in animals 43 . Environmental enrichment techniques are known to diminish the expression of abnormal behaviors in many animal species 8,38,[44][45][46][47] . In the present study, abnormal behaviors did not decrease significantly during enrichment treatment in infected groups, showing that the items used may not be adequate for this.…”