Assessing the welfare of captive wild animals - Sonya P. Hill, Ph.D. Applied Ethologist

Assessing the welfare of captive
         wild animals

         Sonya P. Hill, Ph.D.
          Applied Ethologist

Back to basics: What, why and how

  1.   Definition and concepts
  2.   Why should we care about (captive wild) animal
       welfare?
  3.   Welfare indicators…and challenges
  4.   Environmental enrichment

Definitions and concepts
   “The state of an animal as regards its attempts to
      cope with its environment” (Broom, 1986)

  • “An animal” = an individual
  • Introduces the concept of coping

  • Animal welfare refers to feelings, as well as physical
  and psychological health

  • Measured scientifically
    • Behavioural and physiological (and neurological) indicators

The animal welfare continuum
     Very good     Diverse behavioural repertoire.
                   Similar behaviours to those shown by
                   most members of the species living in
                   good conditions in the wild (‘normal
                   behaviours’)

                  Suppression of normal behaviours.
                  Likely to show abnormal, nonadaptive
     Very poor    behaviours and behavioural aversion

Assessing animal welfare

  The assessment of animal welfare relates to:

  • Investigations of how animals try to cope
    with their environment

  • And how easy (or difficult) it is for them to do
    so

Coping refers to:
 • Having control of mental and
   bodily stability
 • The ability of the organism to
   tolerate a range of stimulation,
   including noxious stimuli
 • Behavioural and physiological
   coping mechanisms
 • Complete failure to cope =
   death
 • Welfare ‘ends’ at death

Definitions and concepts (cont’d)

  • Animals have evolved coping strategies
    • Able to cope with some challenges
    • Not necessarily the same challenges (or intensity) faced in
      captivity

• Very different environment
  for this zoo gorilla (above),
  compared with her wild
  cousins…
• Animals need the resources to
  cope

Animals’ needs

  • To “need” is to have a deficiency in something
  • So a “need” is a requirement that is fundamental to
   the biology of the animal
   • To obtain a particular resource, or to respond to a particular
     environmental or bodily stimulus
  • Some needs are for resources
     • E.g. food, water, heat
  • Other needs are for opportunities to do certain
   behaviours
   • E.g. foraging, grooming, or nest-building

The needs of the individual
 In addition to species-specific needs,
 needs can also vary by individual (and
 over time)
 •E.g. Individual farmed mink differ in how
 much they value water for swimming in
 (see review by Vinke et al., 2008, Appl.
 Anim. Beh. Sci.)
 •Thus, water for swimming is not likely to
 be an innate need in mink, but is still an
 important behaviour

Why do we care about (captive wild) animal welfare?
  Interest in animal welfare varies by cultural attitude,
  and can change over time

  • But, regardless of people’s attitudes towards animals,
   poor welfare = poor welfare

  • We have an ethical (and legal) responsibility towards
   non-human animals in our care

  • Additional benefits to animal production,
   conservation education in zoos, etc.

Good animal welfare in zoos is important for:
 • The animals’ physical health
    • Animals free from injury and disease
    • Breeding success
    • Nutrition

 • The animals’ psychological health
    • Exhibiting natural behaviours to allow animals to fulfil their
      biological needs
    • Environmental enrichment
    • Enclosure design

 Also important for conservation mission of zoos

Why might welfare problems develop in
captive wild animals?
 • Even in the best enclosures, the environment is less
   complex than it would be in the wild
 • Some of this reduction of stimulation in captivity is
   planned to benefit the animal
    • E.g. to control the diet, enclosure temperature,
      etc.
 • But, some adverse effects may actually increase.
   Why?

Choice and control

  • Lack of control
  • Lack of choice
  • Boredom
  • Frustration
  • Anxiety / tension

  • Can lead to welfare problems, e.g. reproductive or
   behavioural problems, immunosuppression, etc.

Assessing animal welfare

 • It’s a bit like a jigsaw puzzle – there is no single,
  universal indicator of an animal’s welfare

 • We have to put the pieces of the jigsaw together
  and interpret what is going on. How?

Assessing animal welfare (cont’d)

  • Use animal-based indicators (especially
    behavioural & physical)
  • And also using resource-based indicators (e.g. is
    appropriate flooring / lighting / temperature
    provided?)

Hill, S.P. & Broom, D.M., 2009. Measuring Zoo Animal Welfare: Theory and Practice. Zoo
Biology 28 (6): 531-544

Behavioural indicators
 Behaviour can be one of the
 most obvious indicators of a
 problem, and perhaps best for
 long-term responses

                           Normal vs. abnormal
                           behaviours: intensity, frequency,
                           duration, patterns

BUT!
Behaviour is not always easy for us to
interpret, so we have to very careful.

           Why is this so?

Behavioural indicators (cont’d)

  • There are many different ways in which animals can
   respond – using different coping mechanisms

  • There are many different kinds of events (challenges)
   the animals have to respond to

  • But how can we possibly know all the possible
   responses to all the possible events?!
    • Affected by individual differences: e.g. genetics,
      previous life experiences, temperament,
      preferences, social learning, etc.

Behavioural indicators (cont’d)

  • Animals don’t just cope with existing challenges:
    • They can be affected by prior experiences
    • And we don’t always know what those experiences were…
  • They can anticipate threats to welfare, even before a
    physical challenge has occurred
  • And animals can be very good at hiding signs of a
    problem
    • It’s a good evolutionary strategy – don’t show signs of
     weakness!

Behavioural indicators (cont’d)
 • If an animal does abnormal behaviours , it is
  having difficulty coping with conditions that exist
  at the time of observation
   • Including if it is recovering from conditions it has
    experienced in the past (Broom and Johnson, 2000)

 • But what is normal behaviour?
   • What is a normal range of activity?
   • What level represents a deviation from this range?

Behavioural indicators (cont’d)

  • It pre-supposes a good knowledge of the species and
    of the typical range of individual differences (Knierim
    et al., 2001)
  • But, such knowledge is currently lacking for many
    exotic species
  • So, where possible, we should use wild data for those
    species…
  • …Or wild data for similar species…
  • …Or, if no wild data available, use the expertise in zoos
    globally to interpret what is normal (carefully)

Behavioural indicators (cont’d)

  And always remember:

  • If there are no signs of any abnormal behaviours, it
    does not necessarily mean that welfare is good
  • “There is no universal indicator of welfare”
  • Use other indicators to help us interpret welfare, too

Signs of injury and disease (e.g. vet)
 • Recognised as indicating the animal has poorer welfare than if
   that animal had no injury or disease
 • [But, sometimes problems are concealed by the animal]

Physiological indicators of welfare
 Can include things like:
 • Increase or reduction in heart rate
   • Emotional or metabolic responses
   • Not easily distinguished from each other
   • Could measure delay before high heart rate
     returns to resting level
 • Adrenal response
    • E.g. saliva, plasma, urinary or faecal
      glucocorticoids
 • Big changes in the animal’s weight

 None of these can be interpreted without
 context, though

Resource-based indicators

Resource-based indicators (cont’d)

Provision of environmental enrichment

                    ‘Environmental enrichment’ is the
                     provision of species-appropriate
                     stimuli that promote behavioural
                      and mental activities and must
                     address the biological needs of
                    individuals adequately (Hill, 2004)

                          NB!! If the ‘enrichment effort’ is
                          unsuccessful, please avoid calling it
                          ‘enrichment’!!

Appropriate social groups

Feeding-related

Cognitive

Sensory

Structural / habitat

Continuous improvements in animal welfare

• We can use animal welfare assessments to help us interpret
  how good (or not) an animal’s welfare is
• We can collaborate with other experts and pool our
  resources, e.g. bringing together zoo and university expertise
• We can use the information to review our husbandry
  methods, animal housing, staff training, etc, etc.
• After reviewing, we can plan and implement changes to help
  improve welfare – continuously!

S.P.I.D.E.R. framework

           From: http://www.animalenrichment.org/

No matter how good the welfare already,

            We can always
    do even better and do even more
to improve (captive wild) animal welfare

Acknowledgements

  • European Commission, Health and Consumers
    Directorate
  • DG Sanco
  • DG Environment
  • FVE
  • Prof Don Broom