ABSTRACT

Free-range exhibits are used by zoos to allow visitors to experience or interact with animals in a semi-natural setting; close interactions with animals have been shown to increase empathy and contribute to conservation outcomes, and as such zoos are increasingly implementing free-range style exhibits to facilitate this goal. We aimed to investigate whether this close proximity to zoo visitors impacted upon four species of macropod (red kangaroo Macropus rufus, red-necked wallaby Macropus rufogriseus, swamp wallaby Wallabia bicolor, and quokka Setonix brachyurus) in a free-range exhibit in an Australian zoo. Specifically, we used instantaneous scan sampling to assess animal behavior and examined whether visitor number affected the proportion of individuals that exhibited four target behaviors; visitor-directed vigilance, retreat, resting, and foraging behavior. We found that the proportion of individuals exhibiting visitor-directed vigilance significantly increased as pedestrian visitor number increased for three of the four species, and the proportion of individuals that were resting was significantly negatively related to visitor number for both wallaby species. The proportion of individuals of each species foraging or retreating was unrelated to visitor number. These data suggest that a visitor effect exists in a walk-through exhibit of macropods, and once visitor numbers go beyond a threshold, the behavior of more animals is impacted, likely compromising welfare. Interestingly, quokka do not appear to be affected by zoo visitors; which may be due to visitor pressure being perceived differently due to evolutionary differences, or that housing and husbandry ameliorate the visitor effect for this species but not others. Like many studies before, taking a species-specific approach to understanding zoo visitor–animal interactions has determined how the visitor effect likely impacts macropods differently.

摘要

动物园使用自由放养展品，让游客在半自然环境中体验或与动物互动；与动物的密切互动已被证明可以增加同理心并有助于保护成果，因此动物园越来越多地实施自由放养风格的展览来促进这一目标。我们的目的是调查这种与动物园游客的近距离接触是否影响了四种巨足类动物（红袋鼠Macropus rufus、红颈袋鼠Macropus rufogriseus、沼泽袋鼠Wallaby Wallaby bicolor和 quokka Setonix brachyurus）在澳大利亚动物园的自由放养展览中。具体而言，我们使用瞬时扫描采样来评估动物行为，并检查访客数量是否影响表现出四种目标行为的个体比例；访客导向的警惕、撤退、休息和觅食行为。我们发现，随着四种小袋鼠中的三种，行人访客数量增加，表现出访客导向警惕的个体比例显着增加，并且休息的个体比例与两种小袋鼠的访客数量显着负相关。各物种觅食或撤退的个体比例与游客数量无关。这些数据表明，巨足类的步行展览中存在访客效应，一旦访客数量超过阈值，更多动物的行为受到影响，可能会损害福利。有趣的是，短尾矮袋鼠似乎不受动物园游客的影响。这可能是由于进化差异导致游客压力被不同地感知，或者住房和畜牧业改善了该物种而非其他物种的游客效应。像之前的许多研究一样，采用特定物种的方法来理解动物园游客与动物的互动，已经确定了游客效应可能如何以不同的方式影响巨足类动物。