Research conducted on the effects that zoo visitors have on primate behavior has yielded inconsistent patterns. This study aims to contribute to the growing body of literature regarding visitor effects on zoo-housed primate’s activity budgets, with the purpose of quantifying the behavioral variability under two conditions: guest presence and guest absence. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, many zoos were closed to the public for varying lengths of time. The Buffalo Zoo was closed to guests for an 18-week period including the summer of 2020, which allowed us to effectively control for zoo guest presence. This case report compares data on the zoo’s gorilla troop from the same time period in 2019. We found inconsistent results, similar to prior studies conducted with zoo-housed gorilla troops. Most gorillas were observed foraging less and exhibiting more inactivity in 2020, whereas the adult male silverback showed the opposite pattern. Abnormal or undesirable behaviors were performed less frequently when guests were absent however, these differences were not significant. We encourage others to compare behavior patterns during the pandemic shutdown to add to our knowledge base of visitor effects. We suggest that researchers do not try and generalize their individual and troop results to the entire population of gorillas in managed care, as both intrinsic and extrinsic factors contribute to individual differences in behavioral response.

中文翻译：

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动物园住的大猩猩部队完全没有客人的行为含义

对动物园游客对灵长类动物行为的影响进行的研究产生了不一致的模式。这项研究旨在促进有关访客对动物园中的灵长类动物活动预算的影响的文献不断增长，目的是量化在以下两种情况下的行为变异性：来宾在场和来宾在场。由于发生了COVID-19大流行，许多动物园因不同的时间段对公众关闭。布法罗动物园在2020年夏季（包括2020年夏季）对游客开放18周，这使我们能够有效地控制动物园游客的到来。该案例报告比较了2019年同一时期的动物园大猩猩部队数据。我们发现结果不一致，类似于先前对使用动物园的大猩猩部队进行的研究。观察到大多数大猩猩在2020年觅食的次数较少且表现出更多的不活动性，而成年雄性银背大猩猩则表现出相反的模式。来宾不在时，异常或不良行为的发生频率较低，但是这些差异并不明显。我们鼓励其他人在大流行停摆期间比较行为模式，以增加访问者影响的知识库。我们建议研究人员不要尝试将他们的个人和部队结果推广到管理治疗中的整个大猩猩种群，因为内在因素和外在因素均会导致行为反应的个体差异。这些差异并不明显。我们鼓励其他人在大流行停摆期间比较行为模式，以增加访问者影响的知识库。我们建议研究人员不要尝试将他们的个人和部队结果推广到管理治疗中的整个大猩猩种群，因为内在因素和外在因素均会导致行为反应的个体差异。这些差异并不明显。我们鼓励其他人在大流行停摆期间比较行为模式，以增加访问者影响的知识库。我们建议研究人员不要尝试将他们的个人和部队结果推广到管理治疗中的整个大猩猩种群，因为内在因素和外在因素均会导致行为反应的个体差异。