Jakob-Hoff Richard, Kingan Michael, Fenemore Chiaki, Schmid Gian, Cockrem John F, Crackle Amanda, Bemmel Emily Van, Connor Rebecca, Descovich Kris
New Zealand Centre for Conservation Medicine, Auckland Zoo, Auckland 1022, New Zealand.
Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Auckland, Auckland 1010, New Zealand.
Animals (Basel). 2019 Jul 31;9(8):504. doi: 10.3390/ani9080504.
In anticipation of a major construction project in an urban New Zealand zoo, a study was initiated to assess the response to construction noise of selected animal species (elephant, giraffe, emu and alligator) previously observed to be sensitive to this kind of noise. The overall aim was to detect any signs of aversive responses to this noise to enable keepers to recognize these and take any necessary mitigating actions during the construction period. The experimental approach involved the creation of acoustic maps of each focal animal enclosure, a series of 90-min video recordings of the animals' behavior in response to ambient noise (control) and amplified broadcast of pre-recorded continuous and intermittent construction noise. Concentration of fecal corticosterone metabolites was also measured for the emus. Key findings were that giraffes, elephants and emus appeared to show an increase in behaviors that could indicate stress or agitation including vigilance and locomotion and may prefer quieter regions of their enclosure during sound exposure. Giraffes also increased close contact with conspecifics when exposed to construction noise. While alligators did not show clear evidence of noise-related stress, our findings indicated that all focal species showed some behavioral responses to recorded construction noise.
预计新西兰一家城市动物园将开展一项重大建设项目，于是启动了一项研究，以评估此前观察到对这类噪音敏感的选定动物物种（大象、长颈鹿、鸸鹋和短吻鳄）对施工噪音的反应。总体目标是检测对这种噪音的厌恶反应迹象，以便饲养员能够识别这些迹象，并在施工期间采取任何必要的缓解措施。实验方法包括创建每个重点动物围栏的声学地图，对动物在环境噪音（对照）和预录制的连续及间歇性施工噪音放大广播下的行为进行一系列90分钟的视频记录。还测量了鸸鹋粪便中皮质酮代谢物的浓度。主要发现是，长颈鹿、大象和鸸鹋似乎表现出可能表明压力或躁动的行为增加，包括警惕和活动，并且在声音暴露期间可能更喜欢围栏中较安静的区域。长颈鹿在暴露于施工噪音时也增加了与同种动物的密切接触。虽然短吻鳄没有表现出与噪音相关压力的明确证据，但我们的研究结果表明，所有重点物种对录制的施工噪音都表现出一些行为反应。
