Animal Habitats: Husbandry & Welfare PDF

Week 1 Learning Resource Animal Habitats: Husbandry & Welfare Animal Husbandry Animal Husbandry: the care and management of animals in captivity. o Can refer to the care of domestic animals (i.e., livestock, farm animals, companion animals) as wel...

Week 1 Learning Resource Animal Habitats: Husbandry & Welfare Animal Husbandry Animal Husbandry: the care and management of animals in captivity. o Can refer to the care of domestic animals (i.e., livestock, farm animals, companion animals) as well as the care of wild animals in captivity (e.g., wild animals in zoos, aquariums, wildlife rehabilitation centers, etc.). Habitat: a location that provides vital resources for the survival of the animal. o Quality habitats will include access to: ▪ Resources: e.g., food, shelter ▪ Conspecifics: i.e., members of the same species ▪ Heterospecifics: i.e., members of a different species (Goodenough et al., 2010). o Habitats may be wild (unmanaged by humans) or they may be captive (humans are solely responsible for maintenance of the habitat). Habitat elements and husbandry protocols will vary based on the context. Consider the animal’s life experience and evolutionary history! Life Experience o Socialization: an experience during an individual animal’s lifetime in which they are exposed to social partners and learn appropriate social behaviors. ▪ Animals have a key time in their development for socialization (known as the sensitive period for socialization). Exact timing differs between species, often occurs within the first few weeks - months of the animal's life. o Animals can be socialized to conspecifics & heterospecifics (such as to humans). ▪ Domestic dogs and cats must receive socialization early in their development to learn not to fear humans, they are not born socialized. o Level of socialization is an individual trait! Evolutionary History o Animals can be wild or domesticated (or something in-between!) ▪ Domestic animals have undergone significant evolutionary change from their wild ancestor (Trut, 1999). ▪ Over the domestication process, changes to domestic animals include: Body morphology: Changes in lengths of appendages (legs, tails), neoteny (retention of juvenile characteristics), as seen in Figure 1. Behavior: More vocalization into adulthood, reduced flight distance, extended period of socialization. Development: Exhibits slower development, with reproduction being the exception (earlier, more frequent reproduction). ▪ Domestic animals have an extended period for socialization. In wild animals, the sensitive period begins earlier but is shorter in length.  Wolf Socialization Period: begins around 2 weeks old and lasts until around 5 weeks old. Domestic Dog Socialization period: begins around 3-4 weeks old and lasts until 12-16 weeks old. ▪ Wild/domestic animal crosses (hybrids) can also be found in captivity (e.g., Wolf-Dog Hybrids). Figure 1. Behavioral and Morphological Changes Over Fox Domestication. Credit to Trut, L.N., Baptptista, F.G., Hunsiker, M.B., and NGM Staff. Animal Welfare How can we best manage and care for animals to improve their lives and avoid harm? Three ways to conceptualize animal welfare: 1. Biological Functioning a. Normal health & development 2. Affective States a. Emotions & feelings (e.g., freedom from fear, pain, distress) 3. Natural Behavior a. Ability to engage in natural, species-specific behaviors. Can measure animal welfare by the ability to engage in species-specific behavior. o Proper welfare includes frequent displays of natural behavior and infrequent displays of stereotypic behavior (i.e., repetitive behaviors with no function on the environment, like pacing). Promoting Welfare in Captive Habitats Captive habitats must include additional elements to ensure proper animal welfare. These include considerations such as: o Timing of Events o Novelty o Enrichment Event Timing An animal’s rhythm of activity is influenced by their “biological clock.” Circadian (Biological) Clocks: synchronize the behavior and physiology of an animal to consistent and predictable variations in environmental conditions. o These environmental conditions include: ▪ light-dark cycles ▪ daily & seasonal alterations in temperature ▪ food availability & timing (e.g., feeding schedules) ▪ changes in tidal patterns due to moon’s gravitational pull o “…biological clocks may have evolved as adaptations to these environmental cycles” (Goodenough et al., 2010, p.186). Examples of physiological and behavioral changes due to environmental conditions: o Some animals are diurnal (active during day), some are nocturnal (active at night). o Birds heavily molt in spring or fall (to replace feathers before the cold of winter). o Bears hibernate in the winter (when food availability is low). How do changes in these predictable patterns influence captive animal stress? o One study examined the stress of captive goldfish. They removed the light-dark cycle (in this case, providing constant darkness to the fish) and removed the feeding schedule (instead feeding the fish at random times).  o Researchers found that removing the light-dark cycle and feeding at random times caused an increase in goldfish stress, as measured by cortisol level. ▪ Cortisol is a hormone produced when an individual experiences stress. It is therefore used as a common stress measure. o “The highest cortisol levels were found in the randomly fed group, suggesting that uncertainty of food availability Figure 2. A goldfish in a captive environment. could be as stressful as the absence of a light-dark cycle” (Saiz et al. 2021, p.1). Ensuring habitat variables are appropriate for the animal you are working with is an important aspect of captive animal husbandry! Novelty Novel Stimulus: A new stimulus, a stimulus that has never been experienced by that individual before. o Examples: providing a new type of food, a new scent, a new sound, or a new type of interaction. Novel items can increase exploratory behavior and learning ability in captive animals. In some cases, providing any novel item may be more important than the exact item used (Houser & Vitale, 2022). o When given an option of different scents, most cats highly prefer catnip. However, it is still important to rotate catnip with other, novel scents (e.g., silver vine, scent of a prey animal, scent of a conspecific). This ensures each item stays novel and interesting by preventing habituation to the item (this is when an animal’s response to a stimulus wanes over time, more about this learning concept in Week 3). Animal Enrichment Enrichment: an addition to an animal's environment to promote natural behavior. Ask yourself- what behaviors would that animal exhibit in the wild? Then ensure the animal has an outlet to engage in that behavior within their captive environment. o For example, in pigs rooting is an important and natural food-getting behavior. In the wild, pigs root in leaf litter and soil (Figure 2, Left). o During the rooting behavior, a pig pushes their snout into the ground and displaces substrate in order to obtain food and explore their environment. o In order to promote this behavior for captive pigs, we can provide a variety of materials to allow for rooting (straw, peat, silage, etc., (Figure 2, Right). o A pig housed on concrete with no ground substrate will not have proper welfare. ▪ Pig cannot root into a substrate.  ▪ If pig does root on the concrete this could injure the pig’s snout. Figure 3. A wild pig roots in the soil (Left); A captive pig roots in straw (Right). Wrap-Up The husbandry and welfare requirements of the animal differ based on context. Consider the type of animal are you working with. o Is it a mammal, bird, amphibian, reptile, insect, fish…? ▪ Reptiles and amphibians (ectotherms) require different environmental conditions than birds and mammals (endotherms). Base the material and construction of the habitat on the animal involved. o Is the animal a domestic or wild animal? o Does the animal have serious potential for human harm? ▪ Although risks are involved when working with both lions and domestic cats, the risk to human health is far greater when working with lions. ▪ Lion enclosures must include high walls and be built of sturdy material to ensure no escapes (Figure 4). ▪ On the other hand, domestic cat enclosures may be constructed of a simple chain link fence with a covered top. The domestic cat enclosure does not need to withstand the same amount of weight as a lion’s enclosure. Figure 4. Lion enclosures must be sturdy (Left) while domestic cat enclosures may just include a simple fence (Right).  Consider the animal’s species and their natural behavior to promote welfare. o Venomous snake species pose more of a threat than non-venomous snakes. o Although related animals may share similar behaviors, some behaviors will be species-specific. ▪ For example, some behaviors, like digging may be similar across canids. While other behaviors are more specific to the species, such as the vocalizations of foxes compared to wolves. ▪ Use enrichment to encourage species-specific behaviors. Thinking Ahead to Final Project Your final project will be a handbook for an animal facility which houses between 2-5 animal species. Throughout the class, you will have the opportunity to explore care and training topics in many animals. You may choose to focus your assignments on the species housed in your final project facility. o The strength of this is that you can explore these species in-depth. However, you may also choose to explore other animals, not housed in your facility, for your weekly assignments. o The strength of this is to broaden your knowledge of animal care and behavior across many different classes of animal or a variety of species. References (Not Required Readings) Goodenough, J., McGuire, B., & Jakob, E. (2010). Perspectives on Animal Behavior (3rd Edition). John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Houser, B., & Vitale, K. R. (2022). Increasing shelter cat welfare through enrichment: A review. Applied Animal Behaviour Science, 248, 105585. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.applanim.2022.105585 Saiz, N., Gómez-Boronat, M., De Pedro, N., Delgado, M. J., & Isorna, E. (2021). The Lack of Light-Dark and Feeding-Fasting Cycles Alters Temporal Events in the Goldfish (Carassius auratus) Stress Axis. Animals, 11(3), Art. 3. https://doi.org/10.3390/ani11030669 Trut, L. N. (1999). Early Canid Domestication: The Farm-Fox Experiment: Foxes bred for tamability in a 40-year experiment exhibit remarkable transformations that suggest an interplay between behavioral genetics and development. American Scientist, 87(2), 160–169. Handout Prepared by Kristyn Vitale, PhD Assistant Professor of Animal Health & Behavior, Unity College