welfare in Zoos

Question 1

What are the 4 roles of a zoo

Answer 1

Conservation
Education
Research
Recreation

Question 2

Why is welfare so important

Answer 2

So animals must be fit for breeding and possibly reintroduction

Question 3

What can poor welfare lead to

Answer 3

• stress
• suppression of immune function
• decrease in reproductive success

Question 4

Why is good welfare important when we educate

Answer 4

Animals exhibiting natural behaviours will help to educate the public about their natural habitats

Question 5

Why is good welfare important when we do recreation

Answer 5

Visitors will have a better experience and more likely to return. If they see high standards of zoo animal welfare it helps boost reputation of the zoo

Question 6

How is welfare measured and give an example

Answer 6

1 - subjective vs objective
Example - assessment of an animal that looks stressed vs measuring stress hormones in faecal samples

2- Qualitative vs Quantitative
Example - Guessing how much time is spent performing a behaviour vs carrying out an activity budget ethogram

Question 7

Which measurements of welfare are most reliable

Answer 7

Objective and Quantitative

Question 8

How is behaviour asses in regard to welfare

Answer 8

Comparing one animal to another animal of the same species

Ethograms
Activity budget

Question 9

What is an ethogram

Answer 9

A cataloguing technique used by researchers to describe how animals behave

Question 10

What is an activity budget

Answer 10

The proportion of time an animals spends exhibiting each recorded behaviour. Once the behaviour is recorded they can be compared against other animals for the species int he wild or in captivity