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2016 : Abstract : Poster
Prevalence and determinants of stereotypic behaviours and physiological stress among tigers and leopards in Indian Zoos Presented by Janice Vaz Department of Zoology & Wildlife Biology, A.V.C. College (Autonomous), Mannampandal, Mayiladuthurai 609 306, Tamil Nadu, India
Co-authors Janice Vaz1, Edward J. Narayan2, R. Dileep Kumar3, K. Thenmozhi1, Nagarajan Baskaran1, 1. Department of Zoology & Wildlife Biology, A.V.C. College, (Autonomous), Mannampandal, Mayiladuthurai 609 306, Tamil Nadu, India. Phone: +91-4364-222264, Fax: +91-4364-229225. e-mail:
[email protected] (Janice Vaz),
[email protected] (K. Thenmozhi),
[email protected],
[email protected] (Nagarajan Baskaran) 2. Graham Centre for Agricultural Innovation, School of Animal and Veterinary Sciences, Faculty of Science, Charles Sturt University, Wagga Wagga, NSW 2678, Australia. e-mail:
[email protected] 3. Centre for Venom Informatics, Department of Computational Biology & Bioinformatics, Kariavattom North Campus, University of Kerala, Kerala- 695581, India. email:
[email protected]
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Keywords: Animal Welfare; Conservation Physiology; Environmental Enrichment; Faecal corticosterone; Stereotypies and Stress in Tigers and Leopards
Introduction: India’s charismatic wildlife species are facing immense pressure from anthropogenic induced environmental perturbations. While zoos play a major role in conservation of threatened species, adaptation of wildlife into captivity presents a major challenge for zoos globally. In this study, we assessed big cats welfare through stereotypical behaviour and faecal corticosterone metabolite (FCM) and employing standard behaviour scoring, and non-invasive stress monitoring and their contextual drivers in a sub-population of two large felid species including Royal Bengal tigers (Panthera tigris tigris) and Indian leopards (Panthera pardus fusca) managed in six Indian zoos. Methods/ Materials/Methodology: What were the main research methods you used? The study evaluated intensity of stereotype, and FCM levels and identi梃婆ed the determinants of stereotype and FCMs among study species between (i) April, and May 2014, and (ii) October 2014 to March 2015, covering six Indian zoos sampling 41 Royal Bengal tigers and 21 Indian leopards. Stereotyping—repetitive walk, head rotation, excessive chewing of http://sccsbng.org/submissions/162
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paws— was assessed following focal sampling method (Altmann, 1974). The FCM levels were quanti梃婆ed from fresh faecal samples using enzyme-immunoassay (Wielebnowski et al., 2002, Narayan et al., 2013, Bhattacharjee et al., 2015). To determine the drivers of stress, in界跋uence of environmental and biological factors (like enclosure size, and enrichments, ambient temperature, keepers’ attitude and visitors number, age, sex, health and reproductive status) on stereotype and FCMs were tested using multiple regression analysis. Results/ Findings/Argument Development: What are the main results/梃婆ndings of your study? Results showed tigers spent more time stereotyping with lower level of FCMs than leopards. In tigers, comparison of stereotypies and FCM level with independent contextual factors revealed that stereotype decreased with enclosure size, and enclosures with natural substrate and these factors explained 61% of stereotypic extent, while FCM level, decreased signi梃婆cantly in enclosures with natural substrate and intensity of health problems, but increased with age, and female and these factors explained 59% of FCM extent. Among leopards, stereotypies decreased with tree cover in enclosure, age, and male than female, and these factors explained 42% of stereotypic extent, but the FCM levels decreased with tree cover in enclosure, and age, but increased with enclosure area, and health problems and these factors together explained 85% FCM extent. Discussion/Synthesis and conservation relevance: Discuss and synthesise your results and the relevance of your 梃婆ndings for conservation practice/science. Overall, our study points out that tigers in captivity require large enclosures with natural substrate and leopards are in need of enclosures with dense tree cover to reduce stereotype and stress levels. Our study is promising and can be compared with natural behaviours from the wild that is, tigers require larger natural habitats, while leopards can manage even with smaller isolated patches but dense vegetation cover. Considering the results, we suggest applications of non-invasive stress physiology, and behavioural monitoring and measures to improve the welfare of large felids in zoos.
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