November 19 2014 -Press Release- University of Florida, Gainesville, --- What do animals really want? A new study from the University of Florida suggests it might be human contact, at least in the case of some Galapagos tortoises.
Lindsay Mehrkam, a UF doctoral student in psychology, and psychology professor Nicole Dorey have published a paper in the journal Zoo Biology that examines different types of enrichment preferences in zoo-housed animals.
The
findings are particularly important for those who work with animals in
captivity every day -- zookeepers, trainers and students -- and strive
to provide the best experience for them.
“Zoos
are at the heart of our work, and the welfare of zoo animals is second
nature,” Mehrkam said. The team said non-mammalian species have been
understudied, and they set out to better understand what makes tortoises
happy.
In the experiment, three tortoises at the Santa Fe Teaching Zoo
in Gainesville named Larry, Moe and Curly, were given four choices of
keeper interaction: playing with a large rubber ball or under a water
sprinkler, or having their shells scrubbed or necks rubbed. The
zookeepers had used all of these enrichments at least twice a month for
several years.
“We
wanted to determine if the keeper interactions are just as enriching
for the animals as they are for the keepers,” Mehrkam said. “What effect
does it have on the animals? Do the animals find it enriching or
rewarding?”
The
inanimate object and the human were placed on opposite sides of the
enclosure. The tortoises were released from the barn and had five
minutes to make a choice. Time and time again, they beelined -- as much
as a lumbering tortoise can beeline -- for the human.
“Not
only did they prefer keeper interaction overall compared to the
traditional forms of enrichment,” Mehrkam said, “but the individual
tortoises had preferences for the kind of interaction they wanted. Larry
and Curly like having their necks rubbed. Moe liked the shell
scrubbing.”
In
a follow-up study, Mehrkam and Dorey surveyed zookeepers to see if they
could predict which enrichments the animals they work with on a daily
basis prefer. They couldn’t.
“The
long-term staff who’ve been there for a very long time were the worst
at guessing this but were very good at knowing what the animals didn’t
like,” Dorey said. “We want to feel like we know our animals, our dog,
the animals who live with us and we care for, but in reality [we] don’t.
We anthropomorphize how they’re feeling. We really don’t understand
their perspective, and that’s what our research shows.”
Both
Dorey and Mehrkam use behavior analysis as the foundation of their
research. This methodology, used primarily in human study, focuses
specifically on behaviors and what factors or situations influence them
rather than looking at root causes. The team also is studying aggression
in dogs around guarding behaviors in a paper to be submitted for
publication soon.
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