Abstract
Simple SummaryThe reduction in space available to wild animals in zoos and aquariums is widely perceived to be detrimental to their welfare by scientists and the general public alike. Evidence suggests that naturally wide-ranging carnivores are more likely to suffer in captivity than those that travel less widely. Using the Amur tiger as a representative for wide-ranging species frequently held in zoos, an expert panel assessment was undertaken to identify psychological priorities in order to see how the negative welfare impacts of reduced ranging opportunities might be most effectively overcome. This assessment highlights that whilst reduced access to space may be central to compromised welfare for many species, there may be more effective strategies in safeguarding welfare than simply making captive habitats marginally bigger. Central to this for Amur tigers is providing appropriate mental stimulation rather than focusing only on behaviours linked to hunting. Various strategies intended to safeguard welfare are discussed for Amur tigers, which can also be considered for other wide-ranging species.The ecology of large, wide-ranging carnivores appears to make them vulnerable to conservation challenges in the wild and welfare challenges in captivity. This poses an ethical dilemma for the zoo community and supports the case that there is a need to reconsider prevailing management paradigms for these species in captivity. Whilst the welfare challenges wide ranging carnivores face have been attributed to reduced ranging opportunities associated with the decreased size of captive habitats, attempts to augment wild carnivore welfare in captivity typically focus on behaviours linked to hunting. Thus far, this has yet to result in the systematic elimination of signs of compromised welfare amongst captive carnivores. Here an assessment is carried out to identify the likely welfare priorities for Amur tigers, which, as one of the widest ranging terrestrial carnivores, serves as an excellent exemplar for species experiencing extreme compression of their ranging opportunities in captivity. These priorities are then used to consider novel strategies to address the welfare challenges associated with existing management paradigms, and in particular, attempt to overcome the issue of restricted space. The insights generated here have wider implications for other species experiencing substantive habitat compression in captivity. It is proposed here that the impact of habitat compression on captive carnivore welfare may not be a consequence of the reduction in habitat size per se, but rather the reduction in cognitive opportunities that likely covary with size, and that this should inform strategies to augment welfare.
Highlights
The welfare of wild animals in captivity is rightly an area of growing public awareness, and the size and naturalness of captive habitats are perhaps the most widely perceived causes for concern amongst the public [1,2]
In view of the fact that felid enrichment is largely dominated by activities linked to the acquisition of food [33], it was considered important to assess the relative significance of priorities linked to the physical acquisition of food with those aspects of an Amur tiger’s life with a greater cognitive component to them, as this is a component that is frequently overlooked in terms of enrichment [67]
In order to do this, it was necessary to adjust overlapping categories; social behaviours were excluded from cognitive processes because being a relatively solitary species, their inclusion could artificially depress the significance of cognitive processes to Amur tigers, and foraging was excluded from both hunting and cognitive processes because it is arguably as much a cognitive process as it is a behavioural process linked to food acquisition
Summary
The welfare of wild animals in captivity is rightly an area of growing public awareness, and the size and naturalness of captive habitats are perhaps the most widely perceived causes for concern amongst the public [1,2]. Many advocates for animal welfare, including welfare scientists, argue that the limited scale and complexity of captive environments, and/or a lack of opportunity to be truly ‘wild’, result in widespread compromises to wild animal welfare [3,4,5,6,7,8]. Veasey argues that the challenges associated with assessing the feelings of animals has resulted in animal welfare assessment, and subsequently animal welfare management [13], focusing unduly on metrics linked to physical health [13,15,19] at the expense of the psychological wellbeing of animals, and that this reflects an inherent tension between physical and psychological priorities in captive animal welfare management [13]
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