Using Anticipatory Behavior to Detect the Change in Interest in an Activity Repeated Several Times and Avoid Habituation in Bottlenose Dolphins (Tursiops Truncatus)

Abstract

ABSTRACT Environmental enrichment is an essential component of the management policies used by zoos and aquaria to promote animals’ welfare. However, when enrichments are provided several times, they can cause habituation and lose their enrichment effects. A simple method to avoid it could be making a preventive assessment about the trend of animals’ interest in a stimulus provided several times. Here, we hypothesized that anticipatory behavior could be used to assess the decrease in interest in playing with objects when the activity is repeated. Moreover, we also assumed that this could be done before providing objects to play with. Our results support this hypothesis. Specifically, we found a positive correlation between the time the 7 dolphins tested spent performing anticipatory behavior before the enrichment sessions and the time they spent playing with objects during those sessions. As a result, anticipatory behavior performed before enrichment sessions predicted dolphins’ interest in the session and allowed us to assess whether the sessions had lost their enrichment effect.