Collins Courtney, Barr Yotam, McKeown Sean, Scheun Juan, Tay Claudia, O'Riordan Ruth
School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences and the Environmental Research Institute, University College Cork, T23 N73K Cork, Ireland.
Safari Ramat Gan, Ramat Gan 5225300, Israel.
Animals (Basel). 2023 Aug 18;13(16):2661. doi: 10.3390/ani13162661.
Negative visitor behaviour is an understudied area of zoo research, even though negative actions can have serious implications for animal welfare. This research project investigated the prevalence of negative visitor behaviours at four different zoos. It included observations of visitors at seven different taxa exhibits and three different types of enclosures. A modified version of behaviour sampling was used to record visitor behaviour and the activity of the animals, while a negative binomial regression was conducted to test the significance of several predictor variables against the number of negative behaviours observed. Negative visitor behaviour was relatively common, occurring in 57% of observations. Banging was the most commonly observed negative action. Negative behaviours were influenced by zoo ( < 0.001), species ( < 0.001) and the number of visitors present ( < 0.001). The charismatic species were the most harassed animals included in the study, while children were the most likely to engage in negative behaviour. Negative visitor behaviours occurred more frequently when animals were active and in close proximity to visitors. It is imperative for zoos to understand visitors' behaviour so that they can effectively communicate with their visitors to minimise negative actions and promote better animal welfare.
负面游客行为是动物园研究中一个未得到充分研究的领域，尽管负面行为可能会对动物福利产生严重影响。这个研究项目调查了四家不同动物园中负面游客行为的发生率。它包括对七个不同类群展品和三种不同类型围栏处游客的观察。采用行为抽样的改进版本来记录游客行为和动物的活动，同时进行负二项回归以检验几个预测变量相对于观察到的负面行为数量的显著性。负面游客行为相对常见，在57%的观察中出现。敲打是最常观察到的负面行为。负面行为受到动物园（<0.001）、物种（<0.001）和在场游客数量（<0.001）的影响。该研究中魅力型物种是受骚扰最多的动物，而儿童最有可能做出负面行为。当动物活跃且与游客距离很近时，负面游客行为更频繁发生。动物园必须了解游客行为，以便能够与游客有效沟通，尽量减少负面行为并促进更好的动物福利。
