Dataset Information

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 focal animal sampling per individual per observation period and analyzed data with Generalized Linear Models. The study group only performed normal species-specific behaviors. Enrichments decreased stress-related behavioral patterns, whreas environmental and individual factors influenced the other recorded behaviors. Our study confirmed the usefulness of employing an integrated methodological approach to enrichment assessment for enhancing captive lemur care.

SUBMITTER: Caselli M

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

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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

Caselli Marta M Messeri Patrizia P Dessì-Fulgheri Francesco F Bandoli Francesca F

Animals : an open access journal from MDPI 20221019 20

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 <i>Lemur catta</i> hosted at Pistoia Zoo (Italy). We collected data from June to September 2013 usin ...[more]

PMID: 36290221

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Project description:BackgroundInter-population variation in host-associated microbiota reflects differences in the hosts' environments, but this characterization is typically based on studies comparing few populations. The diversity of natural habitats and captivity conditions occupied by any given host species has not been captured in these comparisons. Moreover, intraspecific variation in gut microbiota, generally attributed to diet, may also stem from differential acquisition of environmental microbes-an understudied mechanism by which host microbiomes are directly shaped by environmental microbes. To more comprehensively characterize gut microbiota in an ecologically flexible host, the ring-tailed lemur (Lemur catta; n = 209), while also investigating the role of environmental acquisition, we used 16S rRNA sequencing of lemur gut and soil microbiota sampled from up to 13 settings, eight in the wilderness of Madagascar and five in captivity in Madagascar or the U.S. Based on matched fecal and soil samples, we used microbial source tracking to examine covariation between the two types of consortia.ResultsThe diversity of lemur gut microbes varied markedly within and between settings. Microbial diversity was not consistently greater in wild than in captive lemurs, indicating that this metric is not necessarily an indicator of host habitat or environmental condition. Variation in microbial composition was inconsistent both with a single, representative gut community for wild conspecifics and with a universal 'signal of captivity' that homogenizes the gut consortia of captive animals. Despite the similar, commercial diets of captive lemurs on both continents, lemur gut microbiomes within Madagascar were compositionally most similar, suggesting that non-dietary factors govern some of the variability. In particular, soil microbial communities varied across geographic locations, with the few samples from different continents being the most distinct, and there was significant and context-specific covariation between gut and soil microbiota.ConclusionsAs one of the broadest, single-species investigations of primate microbiota, our study highlights that gut consortia are sensitive to multiple scales of environmental differences. This finding begs a reevaluation of the simple 'captive vs. wild' dichotomy. Beyond the important implications for animal care, health, and conservation, our finding that environmental acquisition may mediate aspects of host-associated consortia further expands the framework for how host-associated and environmental microbes interact across different microbial landscapes.

Project description:Digestive tract measurements are often considered species specific, but little information exists on the degree to which they change during ontogeny within a species. Additionally, access to anatomical material from nondomestic species is often limited, with fixed tissues possibly representing the only available source, though the degree to which this material is representative in terms of dimensions and weight is debatable. In the present study, the macroscopic anatomy of the digestive tract (length of intestinal sections, and tissue weights of stomach and intestines) of 58 Lemur catta [ranging in age from 1 month (neonates) to 25 years], which had been stored frozen (n = 27) or fixed in formalin (n = 31), was quantified. Particular attention was paid to the caecum and the possible presence of an appendix. The intraspecific allometric scaling of body mass (BM)0.46[0.40;0.51] for total intestine length and BM0.48[0.41;0.54] for small intestine length was higher than the expected geometric scaling of BM0.33, and similar to that reported in the literature for interspecific scaling. This difference in scaling is usually explained by the hypothesis that, to maintain optimal absorption, the diameter of the intestinal tube cannot increase geometrically. Therefore, geometric volume gain of increasing body mass is accommodated for by more-than-geometric length scaling. According to the literature, not all L. catta have an appendix. No appendix was found in the specimens in the present study. The proportions of length measurements did not change markedly during ontogeny, indicating that the proportions of the foetus are representative of those of the adult animal. By contrast, width and tissue-mass scaling of the caecum indicated disproportionate growth of this organ during ontogeny that was not reflected in its length. Compared to overall intraspecific variation, the method of storage (frozen vs. formalin) had no relevant impact on length or weight measurements.

Dataset Information

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

Publications

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

Similar Datasets

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