Utilizing Camera Traps, Closed Circuit Cameras and Behavior Observation Software to Monitor Activity Budgets, Habitat Use, and Social Interactions of Zoo-Housed Asian Elephants (Elephus maximus)

Comparison of animal welfare assessment tools and methodologies: need for an effective approach for captive elephants in Asia

Welfare is a fundamental aspect of animal management and conservation. In light of growing public awareness and welfare concerns about captive elephants, there is an urgent need for comprehensive, globally coordinated efforts for Asian elephants (Elephas maximus) that participate in religious, logging, or tourist activities in range countries where the majority reside, and where welfare issues have been identified but not addressed. This review provides a comparative analysis of available animal assessment tools. Each offers distinct features for assessment that allow institutions to select criteria for specific needs and available resources. Most are applied to general animal welfare assessments, although some are tailored to particular species, including elephants. The tools span diverse formats, from digital to primarily paper-based assessments. Assessments operate at individual and institutional levels and across multiple welfare domains. Methodologies rely on keeper ratings or expert evaluations, incorporate numerical scoring and Likert scales for welfare grading, and encompass inputs including behaviors, health, and physiological indicators. For tourist camp elephants, one challenge is that the tools were developed in zoos, which may or may not have application to non-zoological settings. Digital tools and assessment methodologies such as keeper ratings face logistical challenges when applied across tourist venues. As with any tool, reliability, validity, and repeatability are essential and must address the unique welfare challenges of diverse captive settings. We propose that a holistic, context-specific, evidence-based, and practical tool be developed to ensure high elephant welfare standards in non-zoological facilities throughout Asia.

Diurnal and Nocturnal Behaviour of Cheetahs (Acinonyx jubatus) and Lions (Panthera leo) in Zoos

Mammals are constantly exposed to exogenous and endogenous influences that affect their behaviour and daily activity. Light and temperature, as well as anthropogenic factors such as husbandry routines, visitors, and feeding schedules are potential influences on animals in zoological gardens. In order to investigate the effects of some of these factors on animal behaviour, observational studies based on the analyses of activity budgets can be used. In this study, the daily and nightly activity budgets of six lions (Panthera leo) and five cheetahs (Acinonyx jubatus) from four EAZA institutions were investigated. Focused on the influencing factor light and feeding, we analysed these activity budgets descriptively. Behaviour was recorded and analysed during the winter months over an observation period of 14 days and 14 nights using infrared-sensitive cameras. Our results show that lions and cheetahs exhibit activity peaks at crepuscular and feeding times, regardless of husbandry. Thus, lions in captivity shift nocturnal behaviour familiar from the wild to crepuscular and diurnal times. In cheetahs, in contrast, captive and wild individuals show similar 24 h behavioural rhythms. The resting behaviour of both species is more pronounced at night, with cheetahs having a shorter overall sleep duration than lions. This study describes the results of the examined animals and is not predictive. Nevertheless, the results of this study make an important contribution to gaining knowledge about possible factors influencing the behaviour of lions and cheetahs in zoos and offer implications that could be useful for improving husbandry and management.

Location, Location, Location! Evaluating Space Use of Captive Aquatic Species—A Case Study with Elasmobranchs

The space use of captive animals has been reliably used as a tool to measure animal welfare in recent years. However, most analyses of space use focus primarily on terrestrial animals, with very little emphasis placed on the space use of aquatic animals. By comparing the space use of these animals to their natural histories and what would be expected of them physiologically, a general assessment of their overall welfare can be obtained. Using the Zoomonitor program, this study investigated the space use of five elasmobranch species housed in a captive aquatic environment: a blacktip reef shark (Carcharhinus melanopterus), a nurse shark (Ginglymostoma cirratum), a smooth dogfish (Musteluscanis), a bonnethead shark (Sphyrna tiburo), and a blacknose shark (Carcharhinus acronotus). The exhibit was delineated into five different zones: three represented the animal locations along the X/Y axis (‘Exhibit Use’), and two zones were related to the Z-axis (‘Depth Use’). The location of each individual on both the X/Y and Z axes was recorded during each observation. Heat maps generated from the Zoomonitor program were used in conjunction with the Spread of Participation Index (SPI) to interpret the data. It was found that while all the individuals used their given space differently, the Exhibit Use was relatively even overall (the SPI values ranged from 0.0378 to 0.367), while the Depth Use was more uneven (the SPI ranged from 0.679 to 0.922). These results mostly reflected what would be expected based on the species’ natural histories. However, for the smooth dogfish, the observed Exhibit Use and activity patterns revealed a mismatch between the anticipated and the actual results, leading to further interventions. As demonstrated here, space use results can be utilized to make positive changes to husbandry routines and enclosure designs for aquatic individuals; they are thus an important additional welfare measure to consider for aquatic species.

A Systematic Review of the Use of Technology to Monitor Welfare in Zoo Animals: Is There Space for Improvement?

Simple Summary

Ensuring appropriate animal welfare to promote wildlife conservation is a top priority of modern zoos, leading to greater effort to improve welfare monitoring approaches. However, more traditional procedures can present some limitations, while the implementation of technology might become an extra tool to comply with the need of a more efficient welfare assessment. This study aimed to summarise the available body of research on technologies used for the assessment of animal welfare in zoos. The results revealed that the majority of publications were published from 2015 onwards suggesting that this research field is still young. So far, the use of technology to assess zoo animal welfare has focused mainly on large mammals likely due to the emotional impact and interest that they have on the public and media worldwide. In addition, despite the employment of both detached and wearable sensors to assess animal welfare in zoos, implementation of algorithms to enable real-time monitoring of the animals is still scarce compared to research on farm animals. Greater application of technologies in zoo research and on more taxa should be the focus of future studies, so that another effective welfare assessment approach can be used together with more traditional procedures to improve zoo animal welfare and ultimately promote wildlife conservation.

Abstract

A top priority of modern zoos is to ensure good animal welfare (AW), thus, efforts towards improving AW monitoring are increasing. Welfare assessments are performed through more traditional approaches by employing direct observations and time-consuming data collection that require trained specialists. These limitations may be overcome through automated monitoring using wearable or remotely placed sensors. However, in this fast-developing field, the level of automated AW monitoring used in zoos is unclear. Hence, the aim of this systematic literature review was to investigate research conducted on the use of technology for AW assessment in zoos with a focus on real-time automated monitoring systems. The search led to 19 publications with 18 of them published in the last six years. Studies focused on mammals (89.5%) with elephant as the most studied species followed by primates. The most used technologies were camera (52.6%) and wearable sensors (31.6%) mainly used to measure behaviour, while the use of algorithms was reported in two publications only. This research area is still young in zoos and mainly focused on large mammals. Despite an increase in publications employing automated AW monitoring in the last years, the potential for this to become an extra useful tool needs further research.

Supporting Zoo Asian Elephant (Elephas maximus) Welfare and Herd Dynamics with a More Complex and Expanded Habitat

Ensuring good health and welfare is an increasingly important consideration for conservation of endangered species, whether free-ranging or managed to varying degrees under human care. The welfare-based design of a new habitat for Asian elephants at the Oregon Zoo focused on meeting the elephants' physical, physiological, psychological, and social needs 24 h a day and across life stages. The habitat was designed to encourage activity, promote species-typical behaviors, support changing social dynamics, offer increased opportunities for choice, and provide biologically meaningful challenges. In this 4-year study, we monitored elephant health and welfare indicators throughout the transition and acclimation from the previous habitat to the new habitat. Several welfare indicators obtained through longitudinal hormone analyses, behavior assessments, and GPS measurement of walking distance and space use provided evidence that these goals were achieved. The elephants were more active and walked farther on a daily basis in the new habitat, with an average walking distance of over 15 km per day. A switch from primarily caretaker-delivered food to seeking food on their own indicates that the disbursement of food with less temporal and spatial predictability increased foraging opportunities, which better satisfies appetitive motivations important for psychological well-being. All individuals showed adaptive and normal adrenal responses to change and challenge, with the highest fecal glucocorticoid metabolite (FGM) concentrations and variability during the construction phase, and a return to previous baseline concentrations in the new habitat, suggesting they acclimated well to the new environment. The elephants expressed a diverse range of species-typical behaviors and demonstrated social dynamics of a healthy herd in both habitats with transitions of individuals through life stages. They exhibited more autonomy in choosing whom to associate with socially and also by choosing different aspects of their environment with regular indoor/outdoor access and extensive resource use in the new habitat. Findings indicate that the complexity and flexibility of the new habitat and habitat management has been effective in improving overall welfare by providing meaningful challenges and the opportunity to express appetitive behaviors, by offering choice in environmental conditions, and by providing the space and resource distribution to support evolving herd dynamics and increased social equity for individuals.

Use of Remote Camera Traps to Evaluate Animal-Based Welfare Indicators in Individual Free-Roaming Wild Horses

We previously developed a Ten-Stage Protocol for scientifically assessing the welfare of individual free-roaming wild animals using the Five Domains Model. The protocol includes developing methods for measuring or observing welfare indices. In this study, we assessed the use of remote camera traps to evaluate an extensive range of welfare indicators in individual free-roaming wild horses. Still images and videos were collected and analysed to assess whether horses could be detected and identified individually, which welfare indicators could be reliably evaluated, and whether behaviour could be quantitatively assessed. Remote camera trapping was successful in detecting and identifying horses (75% on still images and 72% on video observation events), across a range of habitats including woodlands where horses could not be directly observed. Twelve indicators of welfare across the Five Domains were assessed with equal frequency on both still images and video, with those most frequently assessable being body condition score (73% and 79% of observation events, respectively), body posture (76% for both), coat condition (42% and 52%, respectively), and whether or not the horse was sweating excessively (42% and 45%, respectively). An additional five indicators could only be assessed on video; those most frequently observable being presence or absence of weakness (66%), qualitative behavioural assessment (60%), presence or absence of shivering (51%), and gait at walk (50%). Specific behaviours were identified in 93% of still images and 84% of video events, and proportions of time different behaviours were captured could be calculated. Most social behaviours were rarely observed, but close spatial proximity to other horses, as an indicator of social bonds, was recorded in 36% of still images, and 29% of video observation events. This is the first study that describes detailed methodology for these purposes. The results of this study can also form the basis of application to other species, which could contribute significantly to advancing the field of wild animal welfare.

Gaps in Live Inter-Observer Reliability Testing of Animal Behavior: A Retrospective Analysis and Path Forward

Observational behavior research is an important activity for zoos and aquariums, often being conducted to provide insights into welfare and guide management decisions. This research relies on standardized protocols to ensure consistent data collection. Inter-observer reliability, where untrained observers are tested against the behavior identifications of an expert observer, represent a critical internal validation process. Recent software advances have made reliability testing easier and more accessible, but there is limited guidance on what constitutes a strong reliability test. In this study, we reviewed historic reliability test data from Lincoln Park Zoo’s on-going behavior monitoring program. Six representative species were chosen that included 645 live pairwise reliability tests conducted across 163 total project observers. We identified that observers were being tested on only approximately 25% of the behaviors listed and defined in the species ethograms. Observers did encounter a greater percent of the ethogram with successive reliability tests, but this gap remained large. While inactive behaviors were well-represented during reliability tests, social and other non-maintenance solitary behaviors (e.g., exploratory, scent marking, play, etc.) did not frequently occur during tests. While the ultimate implications of these gaps in testing are unclear, these results highlight the risks of live reliability testing as an inherently non-standardized process. We suggest several approaches to help address these limitations, including refining ethograms, reconsidering criteria, and supplementing live training with video. We hope this self-critique encourages others to critically examine their methods, enhance the quality of their behavioral data, and ultimately, strengthen conclusions drawn about animal behavior and welfare.