Liu He, Duan Hejun, Wang Cheng
Beijing Key Laboratory of Captive Wildlife Technology, Giant Panda Research Centre, Beijing Zoo, Beijing, China.
Beijing Municipal Key Laboratory of Food Poisoning Diagnosis Traceability Technology, Beijing Centre of Disease Control and Prevention, Beijing, China.
PLoS One. 2017 Jan 20;12(1):e0170167. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0170167. eCollection 2017.
Stereotypies are commonly observed in zoo animals, and it is necessary to better understand whether ambient environmental factors contribute to stereotypy and how to affect animal welfare in zoo settings. This study investigated the relationships between stereotypic behaviors and environmental factors including ambient temperatures, humidity, light intensity, sound intensity and number of visitors. Seven giant pandas were observed in three indoor enclosures and three outdoor enclosures. Environmental factors were measured for both indoor and outdoor enclosures and the effect they had on stereotypical behaviors was investigated. Our research found that light intensity significantly correlated with all stereotypies behaviors. Higher environmental temperature reduced the duration of pacing but increased the frequency of pacing, the duration and frequency of door-directed, meanwhile the duration of head-toss. However, we found no noticeable effect of humidity on stereotypic behaviors except for the frequency of head-toss. We also found that sound intensity was not correlated with stereotypies. Finally, the growth of visitors was negatively associated with the duration of door-directed. These results demonstrated that various environmental factors can have significant effects on stereotypic behaviors causing the expression of various stereotypies. Thus, stereotypies in zoo animals may not simply represent suboptimal welfare, but rather might be adopted as a means of coping with an aversive environment.
刻板行为在圈养动物中很常见，因此有必要更好地了解环境因素是否会导致刻板行为，以及在动物园环境中这些因素如何影响动物福利。本研究调查了刻板行为与环境因素之间的关系，这些环境因素包括环境温度、湿度、光照强度、声音强度和游客数量。在三个室内圈舍和三个室外圈舍中观察了七只大熊猫。测量了室内和室外圈舍的环境因素，并研究了它们对刻板行为的影响。我们的研究发现，光照强度与所有刻板行为都显著相关。较高的环境温度会减少踱步的持续时间，但会增加踱步的频率、朝向门的持续时间和频率，同时也会增加甩头的持续时间。然而，除了甩头频率外，我们没有发现湿度对刻板行为有明显影响。我们还发现声音强度与刻板行为无关。最后，游客数量的增加与朝向门的持续时间呈负相关。这些结果表明，各种环境因素会对刻板行为产生显著影响，导致各种刻板行为的表现。因此，动物园动物的刻板行为可能不仅仅代表福利欠佳，反而可能是应对恶劣环境的一种方式。
