Publications by authors named "Jocelyn M Woods"
Environmental enrichment is an important tool utilized to improve animal welfare in zoological institutions through opportunity for mental and physical stimulation. Many past studies have focused on the impact enrichment has on animal behavior; however, none have conducted preference assessments on enrichment items to examine the relationship between animals' preferences and interaction with enrichment over a 24-hr period. Ten-minute free operant, paired-choice preference assessments were implemented in Study 1 to determine the enrichment preferences of African lions (N = 3).
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- The study investigates how both visitor presence and animal social hierarchy influence aggressive behaviors in Japanese macaques at a zoo.
- Over a year, researchers observed these macaques for nearly 444 hours, noting that 94.2% of the recorded interactions with visitors were aggressive.
- Findings revealed that lower-ranked macaques were more aggressive towards visitors, suggesting they redirect aggression toward humans as safer targets when stressed by social dynamics within their group.