Animals’ Relationships With Caregivers and Conspecifics are Associated With Zoo Visitors’ Perceptions of Animals’ Emotions and Welfare States

Abstract

ABSTRACT Zoos increasingly seek to capture visitors’ attention through immersive activities such as encounters that feature animal-learning sessions. In this piece of qualitative research, visitors’ perceptions of the emotions and welfare states of animals during such encounters at the Palm Beach Zoo and Conservation Society in Florida under conditions of animal–caregiver interactions were explored. This study incorporated a range of qualitative methods including participant observation, focus group-type discussions, and autoethnography. Reflexive thematic analysis was used to code data and generate themes that were shown to be associated with participants’ perceptions. This article discusses the primary theme affiliated with visitors’ perceptions for this study: animals’ relationships with caregivers and conspecifics. This theme was then filtered through a recently published welfare assessment model to gain insight into how visitors assessed the animals' welfare. I also assessed the animals based on the Model as a form of accuracy-checking. The visitors’ and my assessments aligned. These views of visitors’ perceptions provide an opportunity for zoos to incorporate guest perceptions as an unexplored component of animal welfare assessments. In doing so, zoos stand to benefit from elevated visitor satisfaction, heightened involvement in zoo activities, as well as better animal welfare.