ABSTRACT

Guest-animal feeding programs (GFPs) in zoological institutions aim to foster human-animal connections. The growing establishment of animal welfare science emphasizes the assessment of GFPs as permanent environmental inputs to habitats that require analysis of behavioral output. This study assessed the role of space allocation on giraffe participation and interactions in GFPs in two Florida zoos.

Analysis of social structure indicates that centrality and influence from affiliative network on exhibit shape sharing interactions at GFPs under varying management protocols and designs. Findings suggest that interactions and significant ties among conspecifics are context and potentially temporally dependent. We propose the use of multiple guest engagement stations to maximize space and facilitate feeding opportunities for central and peripheral members. This proposed shift would provide variable feeding opportunities that represent group composition following ecological theory while maximizing points of guest engagement.

Results indicate that increasing space allocation for GFPs increased feeding bout length for individuals, percent of time sharing among conspecifics, and reduced average rate of displacement/minute. Cross-institutional comparisons indicate that guest programs with more space allocation have lower rates of conspecific displacement.

 抽象的

动物机构中的客体动物喂养计划（GFP）旨在促进人与动物的联系。动物福利科学的不断发展强调将 GFP 评估为需要分析行为输出的栖息地的永久环境输入。本研究评估了佛罗里达州两个动物园中空间分配对长颈鹿参与和 GFP 相互作用的作用。

社会结构分析表明，在不同的管理协议和设计下，归属网络对 GFP 表现出形状共享交互的中心性和影响。研究结果表明，同种人之间的相互作用和重要联系是环境和潜在时间依赖性的。我们建议使用多个宾客参与站，以最大限度地利用空间并为中心和外围成员提供进食机会。这一拟议的转变将提供可变的喂养机会，代表遵循生态理论的群体组成，同时最大限度地提高客人的参与度。

结果表明，增加 GFP 的空间分配增加了个体的进食时间长度、同种间共享时间的百分比，并降低了每分钟的平均位移率。跨机构比较表明，分配更多空间的访客程序具有较低的同种位移率。