The Effects of Enrichment on Zoo-Housed Scarlet Ibis Behavior.

Good zoo animal welfare is commonly promoted with environmental enrichment; however, some species are less likely to be offered enrichment than others. This study tested the effect of enrichment on a group of scarlet ibises from Zoomarine Algarve, Portugal. The study consisted of a first baseline condition, followed by four types of enrichment displays with individual presentations, a post-enrichment condition, and a post-enrichment with all enrichment types presented simultaneously. The enrichment types chosen were physical, with a tidal simulation in the lakes of the enclosure; nutritional, presenting mussels in a plastic mesh tube; sensory, by playing scarlet ibises calls; and tactile, with brushes through the habitat. The data collection was performed for 21 days between January and March 2021, 3 times a day, using scan sampling and instantaneous time sampling every 2 min. The comparison between conditions revealed that most behaviors showed similarity between the baseline and post-enrichment conditions, suggesting that after removing the enrichment, the behaviors returned to their initial baseline. It was also found that each enrichment influenced different types of behaviors and these behaviors also changed depending on the time of day. Exploratory behavior was only associated with the presence of enrichment, and vocalizations were only heard after the sensory enrichment was performed. This study demonstrates that the use of physical and tactile enrichments increased activity and decreased stationary behaviors in this group of ibises and may be used to improve their lives in zoological contexts if included in the housing and husbandry protocols.

Understanding Job Satisfaction and Occupational Stressors of Distinctive Roles in Zoos and Aquariums.

For professionals caring for humans or non-human animals, many joys are to be found in working towards what an individual believes to be their calling, especially as they contribute to purposeful, meaningful work consistent with and intrinsic to their own values and beliefs. However, there can be downfalls. Empathic strain, conflict between co-workers, dissatisfaction with upper management, lack of opportunities to make positive changes, limited or no access to level and experience-appropriate professional development, and other stressors are all risks carried by organisations concerned with animal welfare. In the present study, a survey on job satisfaction and workplace stressors was completed by 311 zoo and aquarium professionals working in a range of roles from junior animal care staff to curator. Respondent profiles were created using Multiple Correspondence Analysis (MCA) and four distinct clusters were identified through Hierarchical Clustering on Principal Components (HCPC), highlighting common themes in different levels of experience and in job roles regarding stressors, satisfaction, and feelings about their work and workplaces. Overall, many zoo professionals were concerned with lacking the ability to feel empowered to do their best for animal welfare, and they described a link between the staff welfare and their perceptions of the welfare of the animals they cared for. Through identifying and understanding where organisations can better support their staff it is possible to target and reduce the number of common stressors faced by zoo professionals, leading to increased staff retention, higher job satisfaction, and an improved ability to perform at their best for animal welfare.

Correction: D-Track-A semi-automatic 3D video-tracking technique to analyse movements and routines of aquatic animals with application to captive dolphins.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0201614.].

D-Track-A semi-automatic 3D video-tracking technique to analyse movements and routines of aquatic animals with application to captive dolphins.

Scoring and tracking animal movements manually is a time consuming and subjective process, susceptible to errors due to fatigue. Automated and semi-automated video-based tracking methods have been developed to overcome the errors and biases of manual analyses. In this manuscript we present D-Track, an open-source semi-automatic tracking system able to quantify the 3D trajectories of dolphins, non-invasively, in the water. This software produces a three-dimensional reconstruction of the pool and tracks the animal at different depths, using standard cameras. D-Track allows the determination of spatial preferences of the animals, their speed and its variations, and the identification of behavioural routines. We tested the system with two captive dolphins during different periods of the day. Both animals spent around 85% of the time at the surface of the Deep Area of their pool (5-meters depth). Both dolphins showed a stable average speed throughout 31 sessions, with slow speeds predominant (maximum 1.7 ms-1). Circular swimming was highly variable, with significant differences in the size and duration of the "circles", between animals, within-animals and across sessions. The D-Track system is a novel tool to study the behaviour of aquatic animals, and it represents a convenient and inexpensive solution for laboratories and marine parks to monitor the preferences and routines of their animals.