Effect of Captive Environment on Plasma Cortisol Level and Behavioral Pattern of Bengal Tigers (Panthera tigris tigris)

Captive environment in zoological parks often do not provide optimum conditions for natural behaviors due to spatial constraints and negative public reaction. These factors elicit stereotypic behavior in tigers such as pacing, head bobbing and aimless repetition of some movements, and are considered to be an indication of stress. The present study was conducted to assess the effect of captivity on the plasma cortisol level and behavioral pattern in Bengal tigers (Panthera tigris tigris). Tigers kept in captivity at the Lahore zoo (n=4) and in semi natural environment at the Lahore Wildlife Park (n=6) were used for this study, and standard protocols of housing and sampling were observed. The mean plasma cortisol values for the captive animals and those kept in a semi natural environment were 34.48±1.33 and 39.22±3.16µg/dl, respectively; and were statistically non significant. Similarly, no significant difference in the plasma cortisol levels was observed among the individuals within each form of captivity. From the behavioral survey it was observed that the time spent in pacing and resting was much longer for captive animals than animals confined to the semi natural environment. Thus, Technically monitored “Environmental Enrichment’ plans need to be devised which are as close as possible to the natural environment of the captive animals in order to achieve their utmost performance

Alberta: Considerations in Establishing a New Captive Jurisdiction

The Captive Insurance Companies Act, formerly Bill 76, was introduced by the government of Alberta in October 2021 and passed in December 2021. The act enables entities to establish their own insurance company, called a captive insurer. A captive insurance company is created and owned by a non-insurance parent for providing insurance coverage for the parent company’s exposures and/or those of associated parties. This paper discusses the regulatory policy elements that serve as the key foundations for the captive insurance market in major captive insurance jurisdictions, best practices for captive insurance regulation, and key elements of a best-of-breed regulatory regime that is needed in Alberta to be a competitive captive jurisdiction. We examine regulation and policy elements in leading captive insurance jurisdictions and identify policies that have been implemented to stimulate growth of captive insurance markets. To foster an environment for a robust captive insurance market, regulation must ensure fast and predictable licensing and setup (or redomiciliation), be cost neutral, and have simple, reasonable requirements for capital, solvency, and reporting. It is equally important that Alberta’s captive regulator have the mindset of a captive regulator, meaning that it appreciates the distinction between regulating traditional insurers versus captives, has a willingness to work with the captive industry, and is responsive to regulatory changes taking place in the competitive captive marketplace

Ecological and evolutionary dynamics of elephant rewilding

Baker & Winkler make a thought-provoking contribution to the discussion of what role captive animals could play in nature conservation and how we could get there through rewilding. There certainly is potential for captive Asian elephants, Elephas maximus, to become targets of conservation efforts, but there are also many questions: (1) How much do (behavioral) traits of captive-origin animals differ from their free conspecifics? (2) What predicts the likelihood and strength of social reintegration of captive animals into free populations? (3) How much of an Asian elephant’s functional role in the environment can captive animals still fulfill and how may this influence the evolutionary dynamics of Asian elephant populations? These questions are challenging, but also an opportunity to gain crucial knowledge and insight into the elephant’s ecological role, as well as our own

Conservation Physiology of Tigers in Zoos: Integrating Stress Physiology and Behaviour to Monitor Their Health and Welfare

Big cats in zoos can face challenges associated with captive environments such as inadequate biological adaptation, increased occurrence abnormal behaviour and health-related problems. Conservation physiology is an emerging theme and a dynamic field of research, which aims to reduce these challenges of big cats captive management programmes through new scientific research integrating physiology and behaviour. This field of research applies cutting-edge physiological tools (e.g. non-invasive reproductive and stress hormone monitoring) in combination with traditional methods of behaviour and veterinary health assessments to provide a holistic account of how big cats respond to the captive environment. This book chapter discusses the applications of conservation physiology tools in the captive management of tigers in zoos. Our goal is to bolster tiger captive management in zoos by studying their stress physiology. Overall, the application of conservation physiology tools into captive management programmes for tigers and other big cat species can provide valuable information for evaluating and managing stress, thus improving tiger welfare

The Oral and Skin Microbiomes of Captive Komodo Dragons Are Significantly Shared with Their Habitat.

Examining the way in which animals, including those in captivity, interact with their environment is extremely important for studying ecological processes and developing sophisticated animal husbandry. Here we use the Komodo dragon (Varanus komodoensis) to quantify the degree of sharing of salivary, skin, and fecal microbiota with their environment in captivity. Both species richness and microbial community composition of most surfaces in the Komodo dragon's environment are similar to the Komodo dragon's salivary and skin microbiota but less similar to the stool-associated microbiota. We additionally compared host-environment microbiome sharing between captive Komodo dragons and their enclosures, humans and pets and their homes, and wild amphibians and their environments. We observed similar host-environment microbiome sharing patterns among humans and their pets and Komodo dragons, with high levels of human/pet- and Komodo dragon-associated microbes on home and enclosure surfaces. In contrast, only small amounts of amphibian-associated microbes were detected in the animals' environments. We suggest that the degree of sharing between the Komodo dragon microbiota and its enclosure surfaces has important implications for animal health. These animals evolved in the context of constant exposure to a complex environmental microbiota, which likely shaped their physiological development; in captivity, these animals will not receive significant exposure to microbes not already in their enclosure, with unknown consequences for their health. IMPORTANCE Animals, including humans, have evolved in the context of exposure to a variety of microbial organisms present in the environment. Only recently have humans, and some animals, begun to spend a significant amount of time in enclosed artificial environments, rather than in the more natural spaces in which most of evolution took place. The consequences of this radical change in lifestyle likely extend to the microbes residing in and on our bodies and may have important implications for health and disease. A full characterization of host-microbe sharing in both closed and open environments will provide crucial information that may enable the improvement of health in humans and in captive animals, both of which experience a greater incidence of disease (including chronic illness) than counterparts living under more ecologically natural conditions

Loss of Shoaling Preference for Familiar Individuals in Captive-Reared Crimson Spotted Rainbowfish Melanotaenia duboulayi

Captive-reared rainbowfish Melanotonia duboulayi showed no preference for familiar individuals in an experiment examining shoaling preferences. Fortnightly re-examination of the shoaling preferences of the captive-reared population showed that the lack of preference for familiar individuals did not alter over an 8 week period. The same experiment performed on laboratory-reared offspring raised in isolated groups for 8 months since hatching also showed no preference for shoals consisting of familiar individuals. In contrast, trials performed on a wild population of M. duboulayi found a strong preference for familiar shoalmates, a result that is consistent with previous studies. The lack of shoaling preferences in captive-reared populations is probably the result of relaxed selection and inbreeding in the captive environment. The consequences of captive breeding for fish social behaviour are discussed with particular reference to hatchery production

Comparison of Semi-Captive and Wild Gray-Shanked Douc Langurs’ (Pygathrix Cinerea) Activity Budgets

From 16-10-03 to 16-12-03 I studied four male gray-shanked Douc (GSD) langurs (Pygathrix cinerea) in a semi-captive environment and compared results to wild GSD langurs that were studied from 2006-2008. The semi-captive GSD langurs live at the Endangered Primate Rescue Center (EPRC) in Cúc Phương National Park, Vietnam. Four GSD langur males, three born in captivity and one rescued from the pet trade, share 5 hectares of limestone forest in a semi-captive setting at the EPRC. The semi-captive environment is intended to prepare members of this species and other endangered primates for potential release into the wild. In my study, I assessed the group members\u27 activity budgets and feeding behaviors and compared my data to that obtained in a study of wild GSD langurs. I collected data using instantaneous scan sampling at 2 minute intervals (Altmann, 1974). This comparison may assist future conservationists in their efforts to restore wild GSD langur populations in appropriate habitats that may encourage wild behaviors by reintroduced subjects

Sensory preferences and personality traits of captive red crowned kakariki (Cyanoramphus novaezelandiae) and Antipodes Island parakeets (C. unicolor) : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Masters of Science in Zoology at Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand

The way in which most animals sense and interpret the environment around them differs from species to species. Even two closely related species such as the red-crowned parakeet (Cyanoramphus novaezelandiae) and the Antipodes Island parakeet (C. unicolor) may respond to the same stimulus in very different ways. Individual birds can also show different personality traits or temperament phenotypes when presented with a novel environment. Despite being closely related, the two species used in this study have evolved in different natural habitats and use different foraging strategies. The Antipodes Island parakeets are naturally found on a group of sub-Antarctic islands known as the Antipodes Islands where they live in the tussock and sledge fields that cover the large islands and feed on the grasses and other vegetation. The red-crowned parakeets can be found on the small remnants of podocarp forests around New Zealand where they can be seen living in the canopy and on the forest floor, where they feed on mostly fruits, flowers and berries with a small proportion of invertebrates. I postulated that the evolutionary selection pressures on these two species will have resulted in differing behaviour and sensory physiology that could be measured in an experimental setting. Five individuals from each species was presented with four options in four different sensory experiments (sound, taste, colour and smell). The four different options were presented on top of a metal pole that was placed in each corner within a 1m3 perspex box. The behaviours shown by the birds over each 20-minute testing period was recorded and analysed in terms of both sensory preferences and personality traits. Each sensory experiment was repeated four times with each of the 10 birds. This mean that each bird was tested a total of 16 times (four repeats for each of the four sensory tests). The Antipodes Island parakeets showed interest in all four sensory experiments and spent time investigating all of the options presented to them, but showed the clearest preference for the olfactory stimulus of carrion. They were overall more active and showed a lower level of neophobia towards the novel environment of the testing apparatus. The red-crowned parakeets showed the opposite reaction to the novel environment of the testing apparatus by being less active and preferring to stay in one place rather than investigating more of the testing box. The red-crowned parakeets also only showed interest in the colour sensory test spending more time investigating the four colour options more than any other sensory option. Both the Antipodes Island parakeet and the red-crowned parakeets were captive bred and raised in the same captive facility. This meant that all the birds were exposed to the same captive environment and may have a low level of genetic diversity. The results of this study showed that even though all the birds were raised in the same conditions there were still measurable differences between the two species in behaviour and sensory choices. This suggests that in each species, some innate behaviours driven by evolutionary selection on their ancestor’s life history have persisted despite their common early learning environment in captivity

Reproductive performance parameters in a large population of game-ranched white rhinoceroses (Ceratotherium simum simum)

The population of free-roaming white rhinoceroses (Ceratotherium simum) is under serious threat. Captive breeding of this species is therefore becoming more important, but this is challenging and often not successful. Obtaining reproductive reference values is a crucial aspect of improving these breeding results. In this study performed between 2008 and 2016, reproductive performance was analysed in 1,354 animals kept in a 8000 hectares game-ranched environment. Descriptive statistics of this captive population showed an average annual herd growth (%) of 7.0 +/- 0.1 (min -9-max 15). Average calving rates were calculated as an annual calving rate of 20% and biennial calving rate of 37% adult females calving per year. Females had a median age of 83.2 months at first calving (IQR 72.9-110.7) and inter-calving intervals of 29.2 (IQR 24.6-34.8) months. Furthermore, translocations of animals did not interfere with reproductive success in terms of inter-calving periods or age at first calving. Multivariate models showed a clear seasonal calving pattern with a significant increase of the number of calvings during December-April when compared to April-December. Our results did not show any significant skewed progeny sex ratios. Weather observations showed no significant influence of rain or season on sex ratios of the calves

Phenotypic plasticity in the mandibular morphology of Japanese macaques: captive–wild comparison

Despite the accumulating evidence suggesting the importance of phenotypic plasticity in diversification and adaptation, little is known about plastic variation in primate skulls. The present study evaluated the plastic variation of the mandible in Japanese macaques by comparing wild and captive specimens. The results showed that captive individuals are square-jawed with relatively longer tooth rows than wild individuals. We also found that this shape change resembles the sexual dimorphism, indicating that the mandibles of captive individuals are to some extent masculinized. By contrast, the mandible morphology was not clearly explained by ecogeographical factors. These findings suggest the possibility that perturbations in the social environment in captivity and resulting changes of androgenic hormones may have influenced the development of mandible shape. As the high plasticity of social properties is well known in wild primates, social environment may cause the inter- and intra-population diversity of skull morphology, even in the wild. The captive–wild morphological difference detected in this study, however, can also be possibly formed by other untested sources of variation (e.g. inter-population genetic variation), and therefore this hypothesis should be validated further