Seamounts have been likened to "oases" of life in the comparative deserts of the open ocean, often harbouring high densities of threatened and exploited pelagic top predators. However, few such aggregations have been studied in any detail and the mechanisms that sustain them are poorly understood. Here, we present the findings of an integrated study of 3 previously unexplored seamounts in the tropical Atlantic, which aimed to investigate their significance as predator "hotspots" and inform their inclusion in one of world's largest marine reserves.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Appl Anim Welf Sci
December 2024
Zoo animal welfare is subject to increasing scrutiny by many audiences. Although zoo husbandry and management techniques have progressed, common welfare issues are still apparent. To encourage further improvements, converting theoretical welfare definition into practical application is key.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIndividual animals in managed populations are subject to controlled social and physical environmental conditions that impact their behaviour patterns, choice of social associates, ability to experience positive welfare states, and ultimately their overall health status and quality of life [...
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAsian hornbills have limited ex situ breeding success, yet these species are some of the most threatened of birds, in need of managed breeding programs. To optimize breeding and increase the sustainability of such populations, it is necessary to assess and improve their husbandry and welfare. Evidence to improve reproduction can be gathered through global husbandry surveys.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe implementation of environmental enrichment (EE) can be effective in promoting zoo animal welfare by enhancing the performance of natural or species-typical behaviors. Research on the effects of EE is biased towards larger mammalian species, with less charismatic species being overlooked. Armadillos are one such overlooked example.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFFacial Plast Surg
April 2024
Follicular unit excision (FUE) is an increasingly popular hair restoration technique. In many instances, it surpasses linear strip excision (LSE) surgery in terms of number of procedures and clinics dedicated to performing FUE. The rise in popularity relates primarily to a somewhat misguided perception that FUE produces less evidence of a surgical procedure having been performed.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEnvironmental enrichment (EE) is commonly provided to animals managed under human care, being beneficial to behavioral diversity and improving animal welfare. Use of EE appears to be particularly beneficial to individual wild animals spending a short period of time in captivity, for example, as part of conservation or rehabilitation programs. This paper documents a case study on the application and relevance of EE for a group of captive mute swans housed in a rescue center.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFFront Psychol
September 2023
Good mental and physical health go hand-in-hand when identifying factors that lead people to experience a better overall quality of life. A growing disconnect to the natural world is worsening the mental health of individuals in many societies. Numerous scientific publications have evidenced that being in nature and access to green and blue spaces positively impact upon humans' physical and mental health.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAnimals (Basel)
August 2023
Flamingos are colonial species commonly kept in zoos, well known for their bright plumage and elaborate courtship displays. This project aimed to determine the differences in flock position and association preferences of juvenile Greater Flamingos () and Caribbean Flamingos () housed in the same zoological collection. Little research has been conducted on the association preferences of juvenile flamingos, especially in captive flocks, and therefore this study collected data using photographs taken throughout 2014 and 2015 to further understand association patterns.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFFoot lesions are a highly prevalent phenomenon among zoo-housed flamingos, with up to 99.8% of birds affected. These lesions are a recognized welfare concern, increasing the likelihood of bacterial infections, and even septicemia.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFZoo management techniques for captive birds, such as flight restraint and enclosure type, may affect behavioral performance and are consequently worthy of investigation. Flamingos are amongst the most popular of zoo-housed birds and, as such, research into their captive management and associated behavioral responses are widely applicable to many thousands of individuals. As a highly social species, understanding social bonds and behavior of the individual bird and the flock overall can help inform decisions that support husbandry and population management.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMixed species exhibits in zoos are used to create larger, more stimulating environments to support naturalistic interactions between species. In the wild, mixed species groups are observed as having lower rates of vigilance, presumably due to reduced predation risk through 'detection' and 'dilution' effects. This effect appears to be highly variable depending on factors such as food availability or degree of threat.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAnimal personalities manifest as consistent individual differences in the performance of specific behavioural expressions. Personality research has implications for zoo animal welfare, as it can further our understanding of how captive individuals may differ in their resource use and provide insight into improving individual and group social health. For group living species, personality may enable assortment based on similar behaviour and influence an individual's interactions with conspecifics (e.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCongenital lobar overinflation, also known as congenital lobar emphysema (CLE), is an uncommon (1/20,000-30,000 live births) abnormality characterized by hyperinflation of one or more pulmonary lobes, usually with contralateral displacement of the mediastinum. While the etiology of most cases of CLE is poorly understood and labeled idiopathic, some cases are thought to be due to an intrinsic or extrinsic bronchial wall abnormality causing a ball valve mechanism with resultant hyperinflation of the affected lobe. CLE tends to have a predilection for males presenting insidiously in the first 6 months of life and have respiratory distress and progressive failure, with 50% of cases being asymptomatic at birth.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAs global wildlife populations continue to decline, the health and sustainability of ex situ populations in zoos and aquariums have become increasingly important. However, the majority of managed ex situ populations are not meeting sustainability criteria and are not viable in the long term. Historically, ex situ flamingo (Phoenicopteriformes) populations have shown low rates of reproductive success and improvements are needed for long-term viability.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFZoos and aquariums have an enormous global reach and hence an ability to craft meaningful conservation action for threatened species, implement educational strategies to encourage human engagement, development and behavior change, and conduct scientific research to enhance the husbandry, roles and impacts of the living collection. The recreational role of the zoo is also vast- people enjoy visiting the zoo and this is often a shared experience amongst family and friends. Evaluating how the zoo influences this "captive audience" and extending its reach to include a compassionate approach to animals and people can further enhance the mission, value, and relevance of their work.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAnimals (Basel)
September 2022
Many species of birds are housed in zoos globally and are some of the most popular of animals kept under human care. Careful observations of how species live and behave in their natural habitats can provide us with important knowledge about their needs, adaptations, and internal states, allowing identification of those behaviours that are most important to the individual's physical health and wellbeing. For this study, Mandarin Ducks () were chosen as a study species because, like many species of waterfowl, they are widely kept in both private institutions and zoos, yet little research has been conducted on their core needs in captivity.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIn the zoo, the sound environment experienced by captive wild animals will contain numerous anthropogenic features that may elicit different responses to those stimulated by naturally created, or more biologically relevant, sounds. Husbandry activities, visitor presence and neighbouring species (free-living and captive) will all influence the sounds around zoo-housed species; an animal's behavioural responses may therefore provide an insight into how its welfare state is influenced by this changing sound environment. This project aimed to investigate how animal behaviour was influenced by the sound environment at two large UK zoos; one situated in a more rural location and the other in an urban location.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIndividual animals engage in many behaviours which are mutually exclusive, and so where individuals increase the duration of time spent on one type of behavioural activity, this must be offset by a corresponding decrease in at least one other type of behaviour. To understand the variation observed in animal behaviour, researchers need to know how individuals trade-off these mutually-exclusive behaviours within their time-activity budget. In this study, we used remotely collected behavioural observations made from a live-streaming webcam to investigate trade-offs in the behaviour of two bird species, the mute swan (Cygnus olor) and whooper swan (Cygnus cygnus).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: The difficulty of the follicular unit excision (FUE) hair transplantation procedure is currently attributed to hair curliness and subsurface angulation. Patients possessing the curliest hair shafts are considered the most challenging. Consequently, patients with these features are often denied FUE.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPhilos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci
February 2022
In group-living vertebrates, dominance status often covaries with physiological measurements (e.g. glucocorticoid levels), but it is unclear how dominance is linked to dynamic changes in physiological state over a shorter, behavioural timescale.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAmphibians are an understudied group in the zoo-focussed literature. Whilst commonly housed in specialist exhibits and of real conservation value due to the global extinction crisis, amphibian welfare is not often investigated empirically in zoo settings. The limited research that is available suggests that enclosure design (structure, planting and naturalistic theming) has a positive impact on the time that amphibians will be on show to visitors.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSocial networks research using non-human animals has grown over the past decade, utilizing a wide range of species to answer an array of pure and applied questions. Network approaches have relevance to conservation, evaluating social influences on fecundity, health, fitness and longevity. While the application of network approaches to in situ populations with conservation concern appears in published literature, the degree to which ex situ and zoo-housed populations are the focus of "social networks for conservation research" is limited.
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