The impact of visitors on the well-being of captive animals presents both positive and potentially negative consequences. While some amount of novelty through visitor stimulation offers the opportunity for a more complex captive environment, anecdotal evidence from primate staff observations at the Smithsonian's National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute suggested that gorillas exhibited increased restlessness during the annual month-long late night ZooLights (ZL) event than before it. The current study compared activity budgets, aggression (interactions involving contact between conspecifics and displays toward visitors), and abnormal behaviors in two groups of socially housed gorillas for 1-month periods before, during, and after the 2015 ZL event. We also compared the fecal glucocorticoid metabolite profiles of all six gorillas across these same observation periods. Physiologically, most individuals appeared to cope appropriately with the increased visitor presence during the event. We saw little difference in contact aggression; however, abnormal behavior was observed in some gorillas during and after the event, which highlights the importance of individual analysis and data interpretation. As predicted, we found that the majority of gorillas rested less during ZL than during other observation periods, particularly adult females in the mixed sex troop. Preliminary results of this study aided the decision of zoo management to close initially the Great Ape House and subsequently most animal buildings during future ZL events to avoid the potential disruption of normal activity patterns. While the findings of this study were mixed as to the impact of the event on these gorillas, the results suggest that zoos should carefully consider the possible ramifications of keeping great ape buildings open for lengthy multi-night events.

中文翻译：

---

反复发生的深夜事件对动物园大猩猩种群行为和福利的影响

游客对圈养动物福祉的影响既有积极的影响，也有潜在的消极影响。虽然通过游客刺激带来的一些新奇为更复杂的圈养环境提供了机会，但史密森尼国家动物园和保护生物学研究所灵长类动物工作人员观察的轶事证据表明，大猩猩在一年一度长达一个月的深夜动物园之光 (ZL ) 事件比之前它。当前的研究比较了 2015 年 ZL 事件之前、期间和之后的 1 个月期间，两组社会饲养的大猩猩的活动预算、攻击性（涉及同种动物之间的接触和向游客展示的互动）和异常行为。我们还比较了所有六只大猩猩在相同观察期内的粪便糖皮质激素代谢物谱。从生理上讲，大多数人似乎都能适当地应对活动期间访客人数的增加。我们在接触攻击性方面几乎没有看到差异；然而，在事件发生期间和之后观察到一些大猩猩的异常行为，这凸显了个体分析和数据解释的重要性。正如预测的那样，我们发现大多数大猩猩在 ZL 期间休息的时间少于其他观察期间，尤其是混合性别队伍中的成年雌性。这项研究的初步结果有助于动物园管理层决定在未来的 ZL 事件期间最初关闭大猿馆，随后关闭大多数动物建筑，以避免对正常活动模式的潜在破坏。