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Management problems of ungulates in zoos and safari parks
288
giraffe chased a keeper around the trees when she was trying to exert her authority over him, yet the public, who were all around during the incident, were not attacked or even threatened in any way. Keeping ungulates on grass pastures all the time, rather than in concrete yards as in conventional zoos, increases the hazard of parasites; despite regular worming programmes, they continually re-infest themselves from grazing. All the giraffes have normal zoo diets as well as the grass and leaves they browse in the reserves. None of our animal species have heated quarters but are kept in small, deeply littered houses. When giraffes are put into a park, they soon lose all their shyness; a female has actually given birth with a large crowd of people standing within 10 m of her. Our breeding record of giraffes, zebras etc., is very good, the animals seeming to have adapted to the conditions well. Keeping large numbers of each species helps to ensure that every animal can find a compatible mate. We are particularly proud of our achievements in breeding baboons, rhesus monkeys, chimpanzees and gibbons, all of which are kept without additional heating. The chimpanzees on their large island are perhaps the most noteworthy. During the winter months, they can retire to their small den which is kept very deeply bedded with straw but which has access to the outside at all times. On bad days, they remain indoors the whole day apart from meal times. Their winter diet is augmented by hot potatoes and soup but, apart from that, they receive the normal zoo diet of bread, fruit, vegetables and special primate cubes. As well as night quarters, all animals kept in our parks have day shelters for use in bad weather. Artificial rearing has not affected the mating success of our chimpanzees. The father of all the young in Longleat was artificially reared. We try to make the composition of groups of animals similar to those in the wild to stimulate the animals’ natural behaviour patterns. A troop of about 100 baboons is to be found in most parks. Bach troop is made up of three or four dominant males always fighting for the leadership, a large number of sub-adult males and many females with babies. Most years we crop about 10-l 5% of the stock to maintain the group’s social structure. On the lake at Longleat (which is 0.5 mile in length) we have eight hippos. During the whole of last summer (1976) they refused the food we offered, preferring to graze the reeds on the bed of the lake and grass in the large paddock. As far as our groups of rhinos and elephants are concerned, they are probably treated very similarly to most zoo specimens with regard to feeding and night quarters but, during the day, they have much larger areas in which to wander and graze. Rhinos are perhaps the easiest of animals to manage; on introduction to a safari park they become like a herd of cows going home in the evening to be shut in. Elephants destroy the habitat, just as they do in Africa. To save the trees, bushes, and our fencing, a keeper has to be with the elephants all the time and he has to be a keeper the elephants respect.
MANAGEMENT PARKS
PROBLEMS
OF UNGULATES
IN ZOOS AND SAFARI
J. BARZDO Golden Common,
Winchester (Great Britain)
ABSTRACT In zoological collections,
for exhibition
and economic reasons several species are often
289
mixed in one enclosure. This is not as yet a perfected art and fatalities often occur as a result of inter-specific aggression, especially when equines are the aggressors and when very young animals are the victims. Intra-specific aggression is also important as, in the presence of females (and, in some cases, at other times), adult male ungulates rarely tolerate male conspecifics, including juveniles. Female to female aggression is seldom serious hut in some species, notably sable and wildebeeste, the aggression of male to female precludes keeping sexes together, except during the female’s oestrous period. Factors influencing this probably include the size of the enclosure and the number of animals in it. In herding species, numbers are likely to have a psychologically comforting effect. Management of ungulates must have regard for natural species-specific behaviour. For example, management of horses and asses, must be different, since a herd of horses is dominated by one stallion while a herd of asses is not. Problems can arise in species in which the flight distance is normally great since these animals are easily panicked and, in this state, they tend to run, fatally, into solid objects. It is thus advantageous to reduce the tendency to flee by taming but this sometimes results in other problems, such as animals approaching visitors and being fed unsuitable stuff, for example, sweets, which can lead to enteritis or gastritis. The natural feeding behaviour of ungulates (and other creatures) is commonly overlooked, and this is likely to be a reason for the occurrence of many health problems. Desert antelope have not evolved to be able to deal with lush grass, and neither have leaf-eaters, such as giraffe or gerenuk. On the other hand, desert antelope can derive nourishment from quantities of scrub vegetation, which is why attempts are being made to ranch them, with some degree of success.
A COMPARISON OF THE DEVELOPMENT LIVING AND SAFARI PARK BABOONS
OF BEHAVIOUR
IN FREE-
C. G. ROWLAND and N. R. CHALMERS Open University, Milton Keynes (Great Britain) ABSTRACT Free-living infant baboons in Kenya show peaks in the frequencies of non-social locomotor patterns earlier in their lives than baboons in two British safari parks. However, safari park infants spend more time on their mothers than wild baboons of the same age and this might reduce the time available for locomotion. Four differences between wild and safari park conditions are suggested as possible causes of the safari park mothers’ apparent restrictiveness: (a) climate, (b) visitors’ cars, (c) an excess of adult males and consequently more fighting, (d) less need for mothers to have hands free for foraging. The excess of males is considered to be the most likely. When not on their mothers, safari park infants appear more mobile; both sexes show higher frequencies of non-social walking and females show more non-social running. Males show similar or slightly higher frequencies of non-social running. Non-social jumping occupies the same proportion of off-mother time in each habitat. No explanation is offered. In the play of free-living baboons, there are earlier peaks in the frequencies of playrunning and play-jumping compared with safari park baboons. No explanation is offered, but it serves as a reminder that conditions might affect the development of play and, consequently, the social development of the animals. .-
giraffe chased a keeper around the trees when she was trying to exert her authority over him, yet the public, who were all around during the incident, were not attacked or even threatened in any way. Keeping ungulates on grass pastures all the time, rather than in concrete yards as in conventional zoos, increases the hazard of parasites; despite regular worming programmes, they continually re-infest themselves from grazing. All the giraffes have normal zoo diets as well as the grass and leaves they browse in the reserves. None of our animal species have heated quarters but are kept in small, deeply littered houses. When giraffes are put into a park, they soon lose all their shyness; a female has actually given birth with a large crowd of people standing within 10 m of her. Our breeding record of giraffes, zebras etc., is very good, the animals seeming to have adapted to the conditions well. Keeping large numbers of each species helps to ensure that every animal can find a compatible mate. We are particularly proud of our achievements in breeding baboons, rhesus monkeys, chimpanzees and gibbons, all of which are kept without additional heating. The chimpanzees on their large island are perhaps the most noteworthy. During the winter months, they can retire to their small den which is kept very deeply bedded with straw but which has access to the outside at all times. On bad days, they remain indoors the whole day apart from meal times. Their winter diet is augmented by hot potatoes and soup but, apart from that, they receive the normal zoo diet of bread, fruit, vegetables and special primate cubes. As well as night quarters, all animals kept in our parks have day shelters for use in bad weather. Artificial rearing has not affected the mating success of our chimpanzees. The father of all the young in Longleat was artificially reared. We try to make the composition of groups of animals similar to those in the wild to stimulate the animals’ natural behaviour patterns. A troop of about 100 baboons is to be found in most parks. Bach troop is made up of three or four dominant males always fighting for the leadership, a large number of sub-adult males and many females with babies. Most years we crop about 10-l 5% of the stock to maintain the group’s social structure. On the lake at Longleat (which is 0.5 mile in length) we have eight hippos. During the whole of last summer (1976) they refused the food we offered, preferring to graze the reeds on the bed of the lake and grass in the large paddock. As far as our groups of rhinos and elephants are concerned, they are probably treated very similarly to most zoo specimens with regard to feeding and night quarters but, during the day, they have much larger areas in which to wander and graze. Rhinos are perhaps the easiest of animals to manage; on introduction to a safari park they become like a herd of cows going home in the evening to be shut in. Elephants destroy the habitat, just as they do in Africa. To save the trees, bushes, and our fencing, a keeper has to be with the elephants all the time and he has to be a keeper the elephants respect.
MANAGEMENT PARKS
PROBLEMS
OF UNGULATES
IN ZOOS AND SAFARI
J. BARZDO Golden Common,
Winchester (Great Britain)
ABSTRACT In zoological collections,
for exhibition
and economic reasons several species are often
289
mixed in one enclosure. This is not as yet a perfected art and fatalities often occur as a result of inter-specific aggression, especially when equines are the aggressors and when very young animals are the victims. Intra-specific aggression is also important as, in the presence of females (and, in some cases, at other times), adult male ungulates rarely tolerate male conspecifics, including juveniles. Female to female aggression is seldom serious hut in some species, notably sable and wildebeeste, the aggression of male to female precludes keeping sexes together, except during the female’s oestrous period. Factors influencing this probably include the size of the enclosure and the number of animals in it. In herding species, numbers are likely to have a psychologically comforting effect. Management of ungulates must have regard for natural species-specific behaviour. For example, management of horses and asses, must be different, since a herd of horses is dominated by one stallion while a herd of asses is not. Problems can arise in species in which the flight distance is normally great since these animals are easily panicked and, in this state, they tend to run, fatally, into solid objects. It is thus advantageous to reduce the tendency to flee by taming but this sometimes results in other problems, such as animals approaching visitors and being fed unsuitable stuff, for example, sweets, which can lead to enteritis or gastritis. The natural feeding behaviour of ungulates (and other creatures) is commonly overlooked, and this is likely to be a reason for the occurrence of many health problems. Desert antelope have not evolved to be able to deal with lush grass, and neither have leaf-eaters, such as giraffe or gerenuk. On the other hand, desert antelope can derive nourishment from quantities of scrub vegetation, which is why attempts are being made to ranch them, with some degree of success.
A COMPARISON OF THE DEVELOPMENT LIVING AND SAFARI PARK BABOONS
OF BEHAVIOUR
IN FREE-
C. G. ROWLAND and N. R. CHALMERS Open University, Milton Keynes (Great Britain) ABSTRACT Free-living infant baboons in Kenya show peaks in the frequencies of non-social locomotor patterns earlier in their lives than baboons in two British safari parks. However, safari park infants spend more time on their mothers than wild baboons of the same age and this might reduce the time available for locomotion. Four differences between wild and safari park conditions are suggested as possible causes of the safari park mothers’ apparent restrictiveness: (a) climate, (b) visitors’ cars, (c) an excess of adult males and consequently more fighting, (d) less need for mothers to have hands free for foraging. The excess of males is considered to be the most likely. When not on their mothers, safari park infants appear more mobile; both sexes show higher frequencies of non-social walking and females show more non-social running. Males show similar or slightly higher frequencies of non-social running. Non-social jumping occupies the same proportion of off-mother time in each habitat. No explanation is offered. In the play of free-living baboons, there are earlier peaks in the frequencies of playrunning and play-jumping compared with safari park baboons. No explanation is offered, but it serves as a reminder that conditions might affect the development of play and, consequently, the social development of the animals. .-