Enriching Zoo-Housed Ring-Tailed Lemurs (Lemur catta): Assessing the Influence of Three Types of Environmental Enrichment on Behavior.

ABSTRACT: Environmental enrichment is a management tool used to promote positive animal welfare by stimulating species-specific behaviors and providing animals with opportunities to exert choice and control over the environment. Our study aimed to evaluate the combined effect of three enrichment types and environmental/individual factors (i.e., individual age and rank position) on the behavior of six adult Lemur catta hosted at Pistoia Zoo (Italy). We collected data from June to September 2013 using a within-subject experimental design consisting of five conditions: Baseline, Food-based enrichment, Physical enrichment, Auditory enrichment and No enrichment provided. We conducted six 30-minute observation sessions per sampling day (total = 107 h). We recorded the animals' behavior via 2-minute

SUBMITTER: Caselli M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9597830 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature