Beach Cheyenne R, Jacques Christopher N, Lancaster Joseph D, Osborne Douglas C, Yetter Aaron P, Cole Rebecca A, Hagy Heath M, Fournier Auriel M V
Department of Biological Sciences, Western Illinois University, 1 University Circle, Macomb, IL 61455, USA.
Forbes Biological Station-Bellrose Waterfowl Research Center, Illinois Natural History Survey, Prairie Research Institute, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Havana, IL 62644, USA.
Transl Anim Sci. 2024 May 4;8:txae076. doi: 10.1093/tas/txae076. eCollection 2024.
Waterfowl are housed in captivity for research studies that are infeasible in the wild. Accommodating the unique requirements of semi-aquatic species in captivity while meeting experimental design criteria for research questions can be challenging and may have unknown effects on animal health. Thus, testing and standardizing best husbandry and care practices for waterfowl is necessary to facilitate proper husbandry and humane care while ensuring reliable and repeatable research results. To inform husbandry practices for captive-reared and wild-caught lesser scaup (; hereafter, scaup), we assessed body mass and fat composition across two different aspects of husbandry, source population (captive-reared or wild caught), and housing densities (birds/m). Our results suggest that housing scaup at low densities (≤0.6 m/bird, = 0.049) relative to other species can minimize negative health effects. Captive-reared scaup were heavier ( = 0.027) with greater body fat ( < 0.001) and exhibited fewer signs of stress during handling than wild-caught scaup. In our experience, scaup which are captive-reared from eggs collected in the wild were better for long-term captivity studies as they maintained body mass between and recovered lost body mass following trials. Researchers would benefit from carefully evaluating the tradeoffs of using short- and long-term captive methods on their research question before designing projects, husbandry practices, and housing facilities for waterfowl.
水禽被圈养用于在野外无法开展的研究。在圈养环境中满足半水生物种的独特需求，同时满足研究问题的实验设计标准可能具有挑战性，并且可能对动物健康产生未知影响。因此，测试和规范水禽的最佳饲养和护理方法对于促进适当饲养和人道护理，同时确保可靠且可重复的研究结果是必要的。为了为圈养繁殖和野生捕获的小潜鸭（以下简称潜鸭）的饲养方法提供参考，我们从饲养的两个不同方面，即来源种群（圈养繁殖或野生捕获）和饲养密度（每平方米的鸟类数量），评估了体重和脂肪组成。我们的结果表明，相对于其他物种，以低密度（≤0.6只/平方米，P = 0.049）饲养潜鸭可以将负面健康影响降至最低。圈养繁殖的潜鸭体重更重（P = 0.027），体脂更多（P < 0.001），并且在处理过程中表现出的应激迹象比野生捕获的潜鸭少。根据我们的经验，用在野外收集的卵圈养繁殖的潜鸭更适合长期圈养研究，因为它们在试验期间保持了体重，并在试验后恢复了减轻的体重。在为水禽设计项目、饲养方法和饲养设施之前，研究人员仔细评估使用短期和长期圈养方法对其研究问题的利弊将有所裨益。
