Research & Conservation Department, Parco Natura Viva-Garda Zoological Park, Bussolengo, Italy.
Department of Life Sciences and Biotechnology, University of Ferrara, Ferrara, Italy.
Zoo Biol. 2023 Nov-Dec;42(6):744-756. doi: 10.1002/zoo.21789. Epub 2023 Jun 7.
The effect of visitor presence on animal behavior needs to be evaluated to ensure the welfare and improve the husbandry of the individuals in zoos. This study aims to assess the effect of visitor presence on the behavior and welfare of pairs of Amur tiger, snow leopard, and Eurasian lynx at Parco Natura Viva, Italy. The study was made of two periods: the baseline, in which the zoo was closed, and the visitor presence period, in which the zoo was opened. Per period and per subject 12 30-min observations were done. Continuous focal animal sampling method was used to collect behavior duration of the big cats. The main results of the study highlighted that, when visitors were present, all felids except for the female lynx were significantly more inactive than in the baseline. Moreover, despite interindividual and inter-species variability in the significance level of findings, natural behaviors such as attentive behavior, exploration/marking, locomotion, and positive social interactions were performed more in the baseline than in the visitor presence period. Finally, when visitors were present, as the studied subjects experienced daily longer exposure to visitors, inactivity increased whereas individual species-typical behaviors (e.g., locomotion) and positive social interactions decreased. Thus, visitors seem to partially alter the behavioral time-budgets of the study big cats, increasing inactivity and decreasing the performance of species-specific behavior, at least in some individuals.
访客的存在对动物行为的影响需要进行评估，以确保动物园内个体的福利和饲养管理。本研究旨在评估访客的存在对意大利 Parco Natura Viva 动物园内的一对东北虎、雪豹和欧亚猞猁的行为和福利的影响。研究分为两个时期：闭园的基线期和开园的访客存在期。每个时期和每个研究对象进行了 12 次 30 分钟的观察。采用连续焦点动物取样法收集大猫的行为持续时间。研究的主要结果表明，当有访客在场时，除了雌猞猁之外，所有的猫科动物都比基线期更不活跃。此外，尽管个体间和种间的发现显著性水平存在差异，但在基线期，自然行为（如警觉行为、探索/标记、运动和积极的社会互动）的表现比访客在场期更多。最后，当访客在场时，由于研究对象每天都要长时间暴露在访客面前，它们的不活动时间增加，而个体特有的行为（如运动）和积极的社会互动减少。因此，访客似乎部分改变了研究中大猫的行为时间预算，增加了不活动时间，减少了特定物种的行为表现，至少在某些个体中是这样。
