Animal category: Wildlife

Animal Training, Environmental Enrichment, and Animal Welfare: A History of Behavior Analysis in Zoos

Eduardo J. Fernandez, Allison L. Martin

Published in 2021

Scientific review describing the history of the emergence of reward-based husbandry training practices and environmental enrichment engineering in zoos. It suggests ways to continue to improve welfare in zoos using behavioural analysis.

Document Types: Scientific review

Animal categories:Wildlife

Keywords:Adaptation of the animal to the environment, Enrichment, Human-animal relationships, Learning, Societal issues, Welfare indicators

Go to document

A Systematic Review of the Use of Technology to Monitor Welfare in Zoo Animals: Is There Space for Improvement?

Alessia Diana, Marina Salas, Zjef Pereboom, Michael Mendl, Tomas Norton

Published in 2021

Scientific review of the value of real-time automated monitoring systems in assessing the welfare of zoo animals as a complement to direct observations by specialists. The field is still very new, and is limited to behavioural measurements taken from large mammals.

Document Types: Scientific review

Animal categories:Wildlife

Keywords:Adaptation of the animal to the environment, Learning, Precision farming, Societal issues, Enrichment, Welfare indicators, Human-animal relationships

Go to document

French Senate: Proposition de loi visant à renforcer la lutte contre la maltraitance animale

Ms Anne CHAIN-LARCHÉ, on behalf of the French Senate Committee on Economic Affairs

Published in 2021

Report by the Senate Economic Affairs Committee proposing amendments to the bill to combat animal abuse.

Document types: Regulation/Certification

Animal categories:Canines, Wild animals, Felines

Keywords:Societal issues, Human-animal relationships, Stress

Go to document

Lutte contre la maltraitance animale : la commission des affaires économiques fait le choix du renforcement des liens entre humains et animaux

Philippe Péjo

Published in 2021

Press release summarising the conclusions of the report by the Senate Economic Affairs Committee on the bill approved by the Assemblée Nationale to combat animal abuse. Changing the text of the legislation as drafted, it preserves the possibility of selling animals in pet shops, allows dolphinariums to continue their activity and establishes a list of animals authorised to participate in travelling circuses.

Document types: Regulation/Certification

Animal categories:Canines, Wild animals, Felines

Keywords:Societal issues, Human-animal relationships, Stress

Go to document

The importance of considering age when quantifying wild animals' welfare

Luke Hecht

Published in 2021

A scientific review of work on age-related welfare levels in wild animals, which proposes a  new conceptual framework based on welfare expectancy. This quantifies the welfare of a population of wild animals using individual data on average welfare as a function of age.

Document Types: Scientific review

Animal categories:Wildlife

Keywords: Modelling, Human-animal relationships,Welfare indicators

Go to document

Is Animal Welfare an Internationally Understood Concept in the Zoo World? Thematic Analysis of Two Regional Groups of Zoo Staff

Heather Bacon, Belinda Vigors, Darren J. Shaw, Natalie Waran, Cathy M. Dwyer, Catriona Bell

Published in 2021

Scientific article comparing the perceptions and knowledge of zoo professionals in Europe and China, using telephone interviews on 3 themes: "what animal welfare is", "animal welfare frameworks" and "the human element in animal welfare". It shows that, although the concept of animal welfare is perceived in comparable ways by the two cultures,  its implementation in China would require action by management and staff motivation.

Document Types: Scientific paper

Animal categories:Wildlife

Keywords: Societal issues, Welfare indicators, Human-animal relationships

Go to document

Zoo Visitor Attitudes Are More Influenced by Animal Behaviour than Environmental Enrichment Appearance

Marina Salas, Daan W. Laméris, Arno Depoortere, Lise Plessers, Jonas Verspeek

Published in 2021

Scientific article showing that zoo visitors are not aware of the type of environmental enrichment (natural or artificial) in a lemur enclosure but are much more sensitive to the behaviour of the animals. It suggests that enrichment objects should be designed more for the effects they have on animals than for their appearance.

Document Types: Scientific paper

Animal categories:Wildlife

Keywords: Enrichment, Human-animal relationships, Living environment,Societal issues

Go to document

European Parliament: Written answer to Question E-002017/2021 : Fighting the illegal trade in wild animals

Annika Bruna (ID), Ms Kyriakides on behalf of the European Commission

Published in 2021

Parliamentary question on the measures taken by the EU to punish wildlife smugglers using the internet for their trade and to prevent this illegal practice by the reporting of fraudulent advertisements and by informing potential buyers.

Document types: Regulation/Certification

Animal categories:Wildlife

Keywords: Societal issues

Go to document