Environmental Enrichment for a Captive Asian Black Leopard, Panthera pardus

Date of Award

2004

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelors

Department

Natural Sciences

First Advisor

Beulig, Alfred

Keywords

Environmental Enrichment, Black Leopard, Zoo, Captive Animal, Jungle Gardens

Area of Concentration

Biology

Abstract

For educational and/or conservational purposes, laboratories, zoos, and wildlife parks keep animals. In this paper I investigate the measures taken to improve the captive lives of animals. The observational study designed around this topic takes place at a local zoo. The objective was to study the captive leopard housed on the premises of Jungle Gardens Zoological Park (see Abstract for location). As is true of many captive animals, the leopard had been showing abnormal or maladaptive behaviors that are usually taken as signs of stress to a captive environment. I hoped to assess the effectiveness of different means to alleviate stressful conditions and reduce abnormal behavior. The roles of zoos are evolving from sites purely for entertainment, often at an animal's expense, to institutions concerned with both the physical and the psychological welfare of their animals with an emphasis on education over recreation. For this thesis, I designed a study on the effectiveness of enrichment for this particular captive leopard (cover page image). My question was, will environmental enrichment eliminate or at least reduce the stereotypic pacing behavior found most often during the hour of 3:00-4:00 p.m. in this Asian black leopard? The measurement for success was the reduction of this abnormal behavior. My hypothesis for this experiment was that environmental enrichment would significantly reduce pacing behavior in the leopard. After three treatments of varied environmental enrichment devices, pacing behavior significantly reduced.

Rights

This bibliographic record is available under the Creative Commons CC0 public domain dedication. The New College of Florida, as creator of this bibliographic record, has waived all rights to it worldwide under copyright law, including all related and neighboring rights, to the extent allowed by law.

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