The effect of visitor number and spice provisioning in pacing expression by jaguars evaluated through a case study.

L S Vidal,M C S R Faccio,M M Martins,D C Briani,F R Guilherme,V F Silva

doi:10.1590/1519-6984.22814

Abstract

Captive animals exhibit stereotypic pacing in response to multiple causes, including the inability to escape from human contact. Environmental enrichment techniques can minimize pacing expression. By using an individual-based approach, we addressed whether the amount of time two males and a female jaguar (Panthera onca) devote to pacing varied with the number of visitors and tested the effectiveness of cinnamon and black pepper in reducing pacing. The amount of time that all jaguars engaged in pacing increased significantly with the number of visitors. Despite the difference between the males regarding age and housing conditions, both devoted significantly less time to pacing following the addition of both spices, which indicates their suitability as enrichment techniques. Mean time devoted to pacing among the treatments did not differ for the female. Our findings pointed out to the validity of individual-based approaches, as they can reveal how suitable olfactory stimuli are to minimizing stereotypies irrespective of particular traits.

Highlights

The captive environment differs from the wild with respect to what animals experience
We address the following questions regarding three captive jaguars: 1) Does exposure to an increasing number of visitors lead to a rise in the display of pacing? and 2) Does pacing expression reduce after the provisioning of spices? We predicted that pacing expression in jaguars would increase in accordance with visitor number
Despite the paucity of data, our results combined with those of Sellinger and Ha (2005), which used an individual-based approach, suggest that the effect of public exposure on jaguars’ stereotypic pacing may operate on an individual-basis, being determined by the sensitivity of the enclosure’s occupant to one or more environmental stimuli. This argument may seem speculative, taking it as truth, one could ask why all the jaguars at Parque Ecológico de São Carlos (PESC) are sensitive to the increase in visitor numbers

Summary

Introduction

The captive environment differs from the wild with respect to what animals experience. Unlike wild animals, those housed in zoos are subjected to contact with unfamiliar humans. Public exposure can be one of the determining factors in the expression of stereotypic pacing (e.g., Carlstead, 1996; Davey, 2007; Mason et al, 2007; Morgan and Tromborg, 2007), the repetitive and apparently functionless locomotor behavior displayed by captive animals (Mason et al, 2007). Davey (2007) suggested that compared to small animals, large animals.

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