Environmental enrichment and zoo animal welfare
Keywords:
Welfare, zoos, environmental, emichment, behaviorAbstract
Mankind keep animals in captivity since antiquity, this practice is sustained for various reasons, which have changed over time, following the evolution of human society. Urban growth and the expansion of agricultura! activities limit the areas of natural occurrence of many species that often get rescued and end up destined for captivity, which is also a tool for species conservation prograrns that develop research and reproduction. However, the deprivation of a natural enviromnent life causes a lot of negative impacts, especially on the behavior of animals, which begin to express abnonnal pattems such as disorders and stereotypes, indicating decrease in welfare levels and stress. Modern institutions , in order to minimize the hannful effects of captivity, employ a set of techniques called environmental emichment, which aims to stimulate the animals to perfonn natural behaviors, increasing the complexity of environments and improving the handling conditions. The effects of environmental emichment can be evaluated based on behavioral or physiological parameters , through the analysis of stress-related honnones. This review presents a biief history of the activities developed in captivity with the purpose of raising the welfare levels, addressing the main techniques used and relevant studies on the subject, which demonstrate the imp01tance of this set of techniques to improve the quality of life of captive animals in zoos.
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