RATELVol. 44 No. 1. March 2017 Journal of the Association of British and Irish Wild Keepers

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The Association of British & Irish Wild Animal Keepers ABWAK is a non-profit making organisation catering for those interested in and involved with the keeping of wild . The aim of the association is: “To achieve and advance the highest standards of excellence in wild animal care” We believe that: • We are the professional association representing animal keepers in Britain & Ireland for whom excellent animal welfare is the highest priority • We can have a significant impact in welfare issues by bringing keepers and stakeholders together and by being a strong representative & consultative body • We can make a significant contribution to the training & development of animal keepers thus raising standards and increasing the recognition of wild animal collections • By developing the skills & expertise of our members we can make a unique contribution to conservation Membership rates (2017) - no increase in membership fee this year. (NB current rates are those given on our website, rates are reviewed annually). Professional or Associate £30 Joint Professional £50 Overseas £50 Subscription is for ONE copy of each issue of RATEL Subscription to RATEL only £100 (to March 2018) eg for libraries; and does not give membership privileges or rights President: Prof. David Field, ZSL Vice Presidents: Jonathan Barzdo (founder); Dr Miranda Stevenson (retired) Hon. Vice Presidents: Rick Green; John Ray; Stewart Muir; Roger Wheater; Stephen Woollard

ABWAK COUNCIL (March 2017) - elected by the Membership (all posts are voluntary).

Chair: Tim Morphew*, Folly Farm Vice Chair & Symposium Secretary: Laura Gardner*, ZSL London Hon. Treasurer Nick Davis*, NEZS Hon. Secretary Lucy Manning*, NEZS Chester Zoo

Membership Secretary Terri Hill (private breeder) * Executive Committee Other Members of ABWAK Council: To contact the ABWAK Council: Yianna Cooling, General Enquiries Adam Douglass, Noah’s Ark Zoo Farm [email protected] Daniel O’Loughlin, Sparsholt College Membership: Hannah Slaney, [email protected] Vicky Snook, Port Lympne Wild Animal Park Back Issues & merchandise: [email protected] Ex officio - Non-council (temporary roles): Articles and advertising: Editor: Stephen Woollard, www.ZooStephen.com [email protected] Book-keeping: Richard Barnett (retired) Advertising Full, and half page advertising space is available (colour or black and white) – contact the Editor for rates.

© Copyright 2017 Association of British and Irish Wild Animal Keepers ISSN 0305 – 1218 Contents Vol.44. No.1. March 2017 From the editor 2 ABWAK’s new Chair, Tim Morphew 3 ICZ Steering Committee in Argentina 5 Yianna Cooling Monitoring Pygmy Slow Loris (Nycticebus pygmaeus) 7 Oestrus and Pregnancy Paige Bwye

Experiences in Captive Animal Training - Where To 10 Start Selina Reid, Joanna Mason and Michelle Taylor ABWAK Treasure(r) - Richard Barnett 13 An investigation into whether food-based environmental 14 enrichment will increase the activity levels of Alaotran gentle lemurs (Hapalemur alaotrensis) at Birmingham Wildlife Conservation Park pygmy slow loris Micah Dupont

Breeding the Forgotten -My Experiences With 18 the Purple Crested Turaco (Gallirex porphyreolophus) Christopher Benjamin Kent Studying an Amur leopard to identify the triggers for 21 stereotypic behaviour Anna Riach and Nathan Campion

White-Footed Tamarin Conservation Workshop, 24 Colombia, 2016 Greg Clifton Book Review: Bovids of the World: Antelopes, Gazelles, 27 Cattle, Goats, Sheep, and Relatives (Princeton Field Guides) Russell Tofts

ABWAK COUNCIL News: We hold our AGM in March every year, and so this is the time that election of new members of ABWAK Council takes place, but also when some Council members come to the end of their term of office. This year we see a time of great opportunity for the ‘new’ ABWAK Council, with a new Chair & other posts changing over. Furthermore we are recruiting additional Council members at the moment. Thank you to our ‘departing’ Council members: Andy Moore; Mairee Vincent; Richard Barnett & Stephen Woollard. (Richard & Stephen are mentioned elsewhere in this RATEL). Andy has largely been the organiser of the Symposium at Colchester, whilst also putting together the programme and speaker arrangements at the last symposium too. Thanks! Mairee has been involved with ABWAK for many years, most notably whilst at Leeds Castle, and has helped with activities such as publications, merchandise, grants and symposium. She also took ‘ABWAK’ to South America on a ‘toucan field trip’. Thanks Mairee. All will no doubt continue to be involved with ABWAK outside of Council. As can be seen opposite in the list of Council, some roles have been re-allocated and taken on by new hands, and more work is underway on the areas of responsibility for each person. Special mention must be given to Laura Gardner who has been and remains as a key member of the Council. Not only does Laura manage the bookings for the Symposium, she has played a central part in the running of Council and our activities, and took on Co-Chair from 2015, and has now been persuaded to take on Vice Chair from this AGM. Thank you Laura. From the editor... Happy New Year. 2017 looks likely to be a year of change and challenges. We can’t ignore the political situation with ‘Brexit’; not least as we are the Associaton of British & Irish Wild Animal Keepers, and play a key part in the International Congress of Zookeepers [ICZ] which involves our European colleagues. Meanwhile the world is also looking to see what happens in the United States of Trump - especially given his stance on climate change, but also other actions and pronouncements that will greatly affect both the environment and people within and outside the country. 2017 is also Year of the Rooster in the Chinese zodiac, and at the time of writing is a very worrying time for all keepers with cases of Avian Flu being reported and restrictions in place. The challenge for many is how to prioritise and ensure the health and welfare of the in their care, whilst minimising the impact upon the visitor experience - after all, without visitor ‘satisfaction’ there is no money to do the work. Raising awareness and educating our visitors regarding Avian Flu is a real challenge, and ensuring they use hand wash and foot dips is an added complication to managing the zoo visit. However, hopefully the outbreak and restrictions will not last long. In future if this risk is increasing, zoos may well have to rethink some of their collection planning and enclosure design for birds. https://www.gov.uk/guidance/avian-influenza-bird-flu As this issue of RATEL goes into circulation we are meeting at Colchester Zoo for our annual symposium. Once again we are pleased that this is a sell-out event, and we are delighted that our keynote speakers are ZSL Zoological Director and new ABWAK President, David Field, and the new CEO of Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust, Dr. Lesley Dickie. The weekend will feature many topics and talks as well as workshops and discussion. Look out for reports of the event by social media and in RATEL (June). Our workshops this year are advertised by social media and booking is on the website - so please keep a regular eye on facebook, twitter and www.abwak.org We are very pleased to offer our first exclusive Associate Member workshop on career development this month (March) and may well repeat this given the interest on its announcement. Other workshops - most of which are designed for professional members - that are in planning this year include wild equid training; rhinos; bird training; giraffes, veterinary health, penguins and tapirs. Finally, this issue of RATEL features a great diversity of articles and topics. Thanks to all the authors. Don’t forget we accept articles at any time - see inside back cover for details. Now we have around 1100 members there has never been a better opportunity to share your work with the wider zookeeping community.

Editor’s Note: I officially stand down from ABWAK Council with the AGM at Colchester this March. A neweditor is in recruitment and I am confident RATEL will continue to develop and be a respected and useful publication. ABWAK Council have contracted me to continue as Acting Editor for the June edition and hopefully a new editor will take the helm from the September issue.

Stephen P. Woollard, ABWAK Editor; Zoo Education Consultant www.ZooStephen.com Please send articles for RATEL by email to: [email protected]

2 www.abwak.org www.iczoo.org ABWAK’s new Chair, Tim Morphew Tim had a passion for animals and wildlife from a very young age after being given a collection of ‘Britains’ animals and a toy zoo made by his grandfather. This sparked a career path that took him to study at Bangor University where he graduated with an honours degree in Zoology with Marine Zoology. During his time at University he had his first taste of the zookeeping world carrying out his dissertation on wolf behaviour at Port Lympne Wild Animal Park, one of John Aspinall’s renowned collections. The other of John Aspinall’s park’s, Howlett’s Wild Animal Park, would provide the first opportunity for Tim and he began working as a keeper of not long after completing his degree. It should be noted that at the time he was told that having a degree meant he was too qualified to be a keeper! How times have changed! Tim worked with a large variety of primates, parrots and snakes and after a few years had impressed sufficiently to be promoted to deputy head of section. During his time at Howlett’s Tim was lucky enough to witness hundreds of births including a world first in the grizzled leaf monkeys Presbytis comata, he also gained a few scars from a few close encounters! Having gained a good level of experience, Tim’s career then took him to join the team at World in where he worked alongside Jim and Alison Cronin as senior keeper of small primates. This allowed him to work with a whole new set of monkeys and and bring his knowledge and working practices to improve the life of these animals who had been rescued from the illegal pet trade and worse. became a real passion for Tim and to this day still remain close to his heart. In 2004 Tim was approached about helping to run and develop a new animal collection in Pembrokeshire, Wales. After a successful interview Tim took the helm of the new zoo at Folly Farm Adventure Park as the Zoo Manager and has been there ever since. In that time he has introduced many species including giraffe, penguins, African lions, and most recently black rhino. Folly Farm is now a BIAZA and EAZA member and attracts in excess of 500 000 visitors annually. Tim joined ABWAK Council in 2015 and has acted as the BIAZA liason and Workshop coordinator, as well as hosting the 2016 Symposium at Folly Farm. Tim has been elected by ABWAK Council to the role of Chair from March 2017.

Thank You from Stephen Woollard, former Co-Chair I joined ABWAK when I began working in zoos 30 years ago and have been honoured and privileged to have been involved in helping ABWAK as a member of the Council for the past 14 years. During this time I have been Editor since 2005, was also Vice Chair (2009-14), Chair (2014-15), & Co-Chair with Laura (2015-17). So it is with some sadness and great memories that I stand down from Council in March 2017. Over the years it has been great to work with a diversity of passionate keepers and other zoo professionals in advancing the work of wild animal care in the UK & Ireland and beyond. Thanks to the team of volunteers that run ABWAK as its Council over these years, we have seen the Association nearly triple in size; operate a sell-out and highly regarded annual Symposium; provide a full colour and respected members journal; develop a modern website and use social media; run an annual series of training and networking workshops; and help establish an international network of zookeepers - ICZ. I would like to thank ABWAK members and all of ABWAK Council (past and present) for their dedication and contribution to the profession and their encouragement and support for me. I am confident ABWAK will continue to go from strength to strength and am honoured and proud that Council have ‘awarded’ me Vice President and 3 Life membership. So I will remain connected and involved. Stephen Leading the way

Email: [email protected] Tel: +44 (0) 1376 511260 Fax: +44 (0) 1376 511247 www.mazuri.eu

SDS7778 Mazuri Ad 210x148mm AW.indd 1 11/05/2015 09:26 ICZ Steering Committee Yianna Cooling, ABWAK council and ICZ representative

The ICZ Steering Committee meeting was recently held at Temaiken Bioparc just out of Buenos Aires, Argentina. I was honored to represent ABWAK along with Richard Barnett in attending. The meeting went extremely well and actions decided upon will keep the committee very busy as we move forward on a number of projects. Our main reason for being in Argentina was to kick start the preparations for the ICZ Congress 2018. The ICZ is very excited to be holding our 6th congress at Temaiken Bioparc in October 2018. We were incredibly impressed by the facilities there and the hospitality shown to us by the staff at Temaiken. The Biopark combines the goals of botanical gardens, zoos, aquariums and museums of natural history and anthropology, concentrating them in one place. There is an incredible amount of focus on animal training for husbandry purpose and enrichment across all species. The congress will be our first bi-lingual congress with papers able to be presented in both English and Spanish in hope to attract delegates from around the globe. During our time in Buenos Aires, a handful of the ICZ committee members put on an Enrichment Workshop at Temaiken Bioparc. This was attended by 53 Latin American Keepers from three zoos, Temaiken, Ecoparque and La Plata Zoo. The ICZ representatives were from Spain, France, Germany, The Netherlands and myself, the UK. This provided a strong forum for networking and sharing knowledge across different levels. The Spanish speakers where very patient with us non-Spanish speakers making sure we understood and made us feel very welcome.

5 For some of the Latin American keepers this was their first workshop. One keeper that attended had been a keeper for 15 years and had never attended a workshop, ICZ provided this opportunity and it was very well received. We really wanted to make the most of our time and energy whilst we were in Argentina and we spent time visiting other facilities. Not all Zoos in Argentina have such incredible facilities as Temaiken. Myself and Raul from Barcelona zoo spent some time with the great keepers at Buenos Aires Zoo where we had the opportunity to see some of the work they are doing and their huge efforts towards improving the animal husbandry and improving the animals welfare. Our support and encouragement was extremely well received. It was clear to see the keeper’s passion for the animals despite their very limited resources and funds. There will be updates our website as information comes regarding the congress in 2018 we will also be sharing information through the ICZ newsletter ‘Keeper notes‘ the ICZ Facebook page and with the regional associations. We hope you can join us in Argentina in 2018!

Follow us on our Facebook page and check our website for updates! https://www.facebook.com/iczoo/ http://www.iczoo.org/

All ABWAK members are automatically ‘ICZ members’ supporting the development of zookeepers around the world. The ICZ conference will be in October 2018 - keep an eye out on the website and social media for details. There will be a call for papers and ABWAK will be looking to support some members in attending. Monitoring Pygmy Slow Loris (Nycticebus pygmaeus) Oestrus and Pregnancy Paige Bwye Mammal Keeper, Gardens [email protected]

At Bristol Zoo Gardens (BZG) we have two breeding pairs of pygmy slow loris (Nycticebus pygmaeus). To improve our chances of breeding them in captivity it was important to learn the reproductive history of our individual lorises. Lorraine, one of our breeding females, is ten years old and has bred twice at BZG. Females give birth every 12-18months, the average postpartum oestrus being 169 days (Jurke et al., 1998). Although they are considered seasonal breeders, there are cases of them breeding throughout the year in captivity (Feng et al., 1992). Despite this a peak in births remains between January and March (Feng et al., 1992). Lorraine previously gave birth in November 2012 so we did not expect to see any breeding in 2013 and may have just missed her coming back into oestrus for the ‘breeding season’ of 2014 given that female oestruses are usually from July-October (Feng et al., 1992). Having researched Lorraine’s history, we were aware that 2015 may be when she was likely to breed again. Lorraine’s sixteen-year- old mate Norris had not bred in captivity making them an important pair in the breeding programme. Oestrus To determine whether our loris were likely to breed, their reproductive patterns and oestrus behaviours were studied through observation allowing us to establish oestrus cycles. This knowledge was useful to determine when to look for oestrus behaviours in breeding pairs, or when to mix a male and female, if held separately, to maximise chances of breeding. Our loris are housed as two breeding pairs as Fitch-Snyder and Jurke (2003) found that pairs housed together for more than thirty days before oestrus have more breeding success compared to pairs put together for oestruses. However, this will be influenced by previous familiarity and social compatibility. Having witnessed Lorraine’s mating on 28/9/15 (around midday) it was possible to work out a parturition date. Loris oestruses are difficult to determine given they are very small nocturnal animals. At BZG we house our loris in a nocturnal exhibit with seasonal light changes. Guidelines state oestrus signs include increased vaginal opening as well as reddening in colour and appearing turgid although it is still difficult to determine (Feng et al., 1992). By gaining trust with Lorraine through hand feeding and training, it was possible to get close enough to see her genitalia without causing any stress. Taking images of her genitalia over a few months was useful to determine when she was in oestrus by matching dated images to her behaviour/interactions with male Norris. There may be individual differences between females, so taking images of multiple females may be a useful comparison to see different loris oestruses. Behavioural signs of oestrus were more obvious to monitor; when Lorraine came into oestrus the male, Norris, pursued her by following her around their enclosure and attempting to sniff her genitals. During pre- oestrus Lorraine became more vocal and showed signs of aggression including swiping at the male. After two days of trying to avoid the male she came into full oestrus and became less defensive towards the male and chittered towards him and it was then copulation was seen. These behaviours support existing research on loris oestrus behaviours (Fitch-Snyder and Jurke, 2003). 7 Pregnancy Lorraine’s pregnancy was monitored through weighing, observation of behaviour and recording body images. At BZG our loris are weighed every two weeks, however, this became weekly when Lorraine was suspected pregnant. To weigh our loris, they have been scale trained by putting their livefood on a wooden A frame and having them feed here in the presence of a keeper. These A frames stay in the enclosure and when we wish to weigh our loris, we put small scales underneath as shown below.

Infant loris weigh approximately 40g at birth so towards late pregnancy, females should weigh more than their average weight indicating pregnancy. Despite this, we found Lorraine’s weights were not always useful in determining pregnancy because there were other factors to consider such as diet changes. However, there were some similarities between her pregnancy weights in 2015 compared to her pregnancy weights in 2012. The table below shows that at six weeks pregnant, Lorraine gained approximately 50g in both pregnancies, perhaps due to hormonal changes. This was the significant weight that made keepers aware from an early stage that she was potentially pregnant. Having learnt our female’s oestrus cycle, she was observed around the clock to see if she came back into oestrus after the observed mating. There was a notable difference in the male’s behaviour as he no longer followed or attempted to mate her. However, they did still engage in social grooming, easily mistaken for oestrus behaviours when seen licking each other’s genitals.

Lastly Lorraine’s pregnancy was recorded through a series of images over the next six months to include her overall body condition and her genitals to look for oestruses. No visual signs of oestrus were seen and monthly photos of her body revealed her body beginning to change in pregnancy. Lorraine gave birth after a gestation of 188 days, which is the average gestation for pygmy slow loris (Jurke et al., 1997), on the 3/4/16 falling just outside the typical January-march birth peaks supporting seasonal breeding (Feng et al., 1992). Both infant and Lorraine are doing well and Lorraine will happily park the infant for most the day. The infant emerged from the nest box on its own after 4-6weeks. The infant was sexed as male at his first six-month health check with the vet team but his genitalia became visually pronounced at eight months old. This was also when he stopped sleeping on mum Lorraine. References Feng, Q., Wang, Y., Li, C. (1992) Reproduction of slow loris (Nycticebus intermedius) in captivity. Dongwuxue Yanjiu/Zool Res 14: 21-26. Fitch-Snyder, H. and Jurke, M. (2003) Reproductive patterns in pygmy lorises (Nycticebus pygmaeus): Behavioral and physiological correlates of gonadal activity. Zoo Biology, 22 (1): 15-32. Jurke, M.H., Czekala, N.M. and Fitch-Snyder, H. (1997) Non- invasive detection and monitoring of estrus, pregnancy and the postpartum period in pygmy loris (Nycticebus pygmaeus) using fecal estrogen metabolites. American journal of primatology, 41 (2): 103-115. Jurke, M.H., Czekala, N.M., Jurke, S., Hagey, L.R., Lance, V.A., Conley, A.J. and Fitch-Snyder, H. (1998) Monitoring pregnancy in twinning pygmy loris (Nycticebus pygmaeus) using fecal estrogen metabolites. American journal of primatology, 46 (2): 173-183. At 22-23 weeks pregnant Lorraine’s mammary glands began to elongate

At 24 weeks pregnant Lorraine’s baby bump became pronounced.

9 Experiences in Captive Animal Training Where To Start Selina Reid, Joanna Mason and Michelle Taylor Sparsholt College Hampshire

Introduction Animal behaviour management and training is fast becoming one of the key focuses in many zoos and smaller collections. Ramirez (1999) suggests three key and multifaceted reasons for training captive animals: physical exercise, mental stimulation and cooperative behaviour (or husbandry behaviours). With developments in research and education around animal welfare, animal keepers are on a continuous quest to find the best methods for housing, enriching and maintaining the animals in their care, and oftentimes effective training is the solution. The animal training team at Sparsholt College Hampshire (SCH) have a collective experience of over 38 years and have been training animals of various species within the College’s collection for the past 6 years. In addition to this the team are responsible for the coaching of students through theoretical and practical aspects of animal training as they study the level 3 course unit in animal training. The team have collaborated in putting together a three-part series sharing their experiences. Part one outlines some of the most important aspects of animal training and shares the method used by the team for starting training with new animals. Reinforcement One way in which animals learn is through operant conditioning. The animal will learn that if it performs an action, that action will have a particular consequence. B.F. Skinner (1938) coined the term operant conditioning which deals with operants - intentional actions that have an effect on the surrounding environment. There are four possible outcomes to operant conditioning: positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement, positive punishment or negative punishment (see fig. 1). Consequences following behaviour influence the frequency of future behaviour. Behaviours that resulted in valued consequences in the past are repeated in the future; behaviours that resulted in aversive consequences in the past are modified or suppressed in the future (Freidman, 2005). Figure 1: The four quadrants of operant conditioning Primary or biological reinforcers are stimuli which are naturally reinforcing because they directly satisfy a need, for example: food and social contact. Secondary reinforcers or conditioned reinforcers are stimuli which are reinforcing through their association with a primary reinforcer. The clicker is a secondary reinforcer, which is paired with the delivery of food (primary reinforcer). Through repetition the clicker itself can become reinforcing as it predicts the arrival of a primary reinforcer (food). Conducting a simple reinforcement test prior to training will enable the trainer to select the highest value (most salient) reinforcers for that individual animal. It is also worth noting that the salience of the reinforcement is often increased by removing regular access to the food item from the daily diet and reserving it exclusively for training.

10 Starting Training Sometimes the first obstacle in animal training is gaining close enough access to the animal inorderto control what behaviours are reinforced and when. Overcoming this can be difficult, particularly given that stress reportedly has adverse effects on learning (see, for example, Christensen et al., 2012; Destrez et al., 2013; Valenchon et al., 2013) and therefore may inhibit the success of training. The ‘making friends’ procedure that the SCH training team follow aims to form a positive relationship between the animal and the trainer. The ultimate objective is to have the animal either handfeeding or feeding from a feeding cup. The process is simple and involves three key elements: exclusive training attire, a unique training feeding station and a selection of salient reinforcement (food) (see plate 1). The SCH training team wear royal blue, in contrast with the green worn by keeping staff and students. The feeding station should be as inviting as possible for the animal, so, for arboreal species a table or shelf is generally used; for terrestrial species a small platform or ground mat might be better. Finally, the reinforcement used must be salient enough that the animal is willing to take small risks (going to the novel station, getting closer to people) to gain access to it.

Three key elements make up SCH training team’s ‘making friends’ process: training attire, feeding station and salient reinforcement Through classical conditioning the animal gradually begins to associate the station with food, the trainers with the station and thus, ultimately, the trainers with food. An outline of how the process is undertaken can be seen in table 1. The time scale for this process varies hugely depending on multiple factors, most noteworthy of which are the species and the individual’s history. Progression is made based on changes in the animal’s behaviour and through trial and error on the trainer’s part. For example, the team might progress from stage 1 to stage 2 when the animal starts to cautiously approach the station before the trainer has fully exited the enclosure. If the animal is particularly slow to approach the station at any point the team may take the decision to increase the distance between themselves and the station. Employing this process has facilitated the training of a number of specific training goals across a range of species (see image 2). Using a Clicker A clicker is a device used by trainers to mark behaviours. A clicker has a distinct sound, which is unique and consistent, so using one allows consistency across a training team. It is useful when a primary reinforcer cannot be delivered at the precise moment that the behaviour occurs (Ramirez, 1999). The short, sharp sound made by the clicker allows behaviours that occur fleetingly during early stages of training to be pinpointed. In other words, it bridges the gap between behaviour and reinforcement; hence it is also known as a bridge (see fig. 2). In order for the clicker to work effectively it must always be followed by a primary reinforcer; failure to do so will likely result in the weakening or breaking of the conditioned reinforcer (Martin and Friedman, 2011). Figure 2: How a clicker serves as a bridge between behaviours and reinforcement

11 Table 1: Training plan for the ‘making friends’ process

A clicker may be introduced to an animal in one of two ways. Loading (sometimes called charging) refers to a number of training sessions spent simply clicking and following up with primary reinforcement and aims to train the association between conditioned and primary reinforcers. Alternatively, the trainer may use the clicker as it is intended from the outset. Since there is no compelling evidence to suggest improved success with clicker loading the SCH training team do not load. Summary Understanding how animals learn, why they do what they do and how we can use that knowledge to mould behaviour are the fundamental principles of animal training. Establishing a positive relationship between keepers and the animals in their charge is paramount to beginning a training programme. The experiences shared in this first article may provide readers with some ideas to try within their own collection in order to take that first step in beginning training. Part two will discuss training techniques and how and when to progress training.

SCH Malayan black hornbill (Anthracoceros 12 malayanus) auscultation training References Christensen, J. W., Ahrendt, L. P., Lintrup, R., Gaillard, C., Palme, R. and Malmkvist, J. (2012) Does learning performance in horses relate to fearfulness, baseline stress hormone, and social rank? In: Applied Animal Behaviour Science, 140 (1-2), pp. 44-52 Destrez, A., Deiss, V., Lévy, F., Calandreau, L., Lee, C. Chaillou-Sagon, E. and Boissy, A. (2013) Chronic stress induces pessimistic-like judgment and learning deficits in sheep. In: Applied Animal Behaviour Science, 148 (1-2), pp. 28-36 Friedman, S. (2005). He said, She Said, Science Said. Good Bird Magazine, (1), pp.1. Martin, S. and Friedman, S.G. (2011). Blazing clickers. Presented at Animal Behavior Management Alliance conference, Denver Ramirez, K. (1999) Animal training: Successful animal management through positive reinforcement. Chicago: Shedd Aquarium Press Skinner, B. F. (1938). The Behavior of organisms: An experimental analysis. New York: Appleton-Century. Valenchon, M., Lévy, F., Fortin, M., Leterrier, C. and Lansade, L. (2013) Stress and temperament affect working memory performance for disappearing food in horses, Equus caballus. In: Animal Behaviour, 86 (6), pp. 1233–1240

ABWAK Treasure(r) - Thank You Richard Barnett Yes our long-standing Treasurer, Richard Barnett; who has indeed been a ‘treasure’ for the Association; completes his term of office in March 2017 after joining Council in September 2001. Richard was an accountant at Chester Zoo when he was ‘persuaded’ to help ABWAK and take on the Treasurer role from Andrew Bagnall, and I don’t think anyone envisaged that he would have such a long and successful period of office. Indeed, when Richard retired from Chester Zoo a couple of years ago, we felt in necessary to retain his expertise and ‘encouraged’ him to stay on Council a little longer. Richard has contributed greatly to the overall success and operation of ABWAK, and in his Treasurer role oversaw the introduction of ‘paypal’ systems to our website, enabling payments for membership and bookings to be processed directly through the site and has kept a professional and mindful eye on our accounts throughout. As a member of ABWAK Council, Richard took a very active role in supporting and encouraging all of our activities, and working alongside the late Paul Howse, who was a keeper at Chester, and with Chester Zoo support, he became one of the key members of ABWAK’s involvement with the International Congress of Zookeepers, and represented us on the ICZ Steering Committee, and has been the champion of our international networking for the past few years, organised a European committee meeting of ICZ last year and attended the last ICZ steering committee meeting in Argentina with Yianna. ABWAK Council are delighted to recognise Richard with Life Membership as a small gesture of thanks for 16 years of service. Council is also incredibly grateful to Richard for carrying on his role in retirement, and for agreeing to undertake the temporary role of ‘book-keeper’ now, assisting our new Treasurer, Nick. Thanks Richard! PWP 2015

“Batman”, Marwell 2006 ICZ Leipzig 2015

Folly Farm 2016 13 An investigation into whether food-based environmental enrichment will increase the activity levels of Alaotran gentle lemurs (Hapalemur alaotrensis) at Birmingham Wildlife Conservation Park Micah Dupont BSc (Hons) Animal Health and Welfare Student Harper Adams University Introduction: Alaotran gentle lemurs are a species that are classed as critically endangered in the wild¹ due to the 80% decline in the species over the last 25 years, which was predominantly instigated by the destruction to their unique habitat. Their natural habitat is papyrus and reed beds located around Lac Alaotra in Madagascar², they have the most constrained distribution out of all primates and are the only that relies on marsh vegetation in their habitat. Excessive weight gain and obesity is becoming a more frequent problem affecting captive lemurs³. Diets and activity levels differ significantly between captive lemurs compared to their wild counterparts, which directly affects the breeding and health of captive lemurs4. Various species of lemurs are reserve populations in endangered species programs meaning the success of their captive breeding programs are vital5. Obesity makes lemurs unsuitable for release into their wild habitats³ and directly affects the animals breeding, health, welfare and behaviour. BIAZA (2012) carried out a study assessing the weights of 904 captive lemurs and found that 54% were overweight, 12% were obese and 21% were morbidly obese. Enrichment is an animal husbandry application that aids to benefit the quality of life of captive animals; it offers environmental stimulation that is crucial for optimal psychological and physiological welfare. Animals have evolved to survive in specific environments, causing them to perform species-specific behaviours which animals are highly motivated to perform, within captive environments animals are assisted to perform these behaviours through complex enclosure design, adequate diets and environmental enrichment. Enrichment has been known to enhance an animal’s physical fitness, enclosure use, reproduction, welfare and increase an animal’s behavioural repertoire6. The majority of primates spend most of their days foraging, using feeding enrichment this aids to replicate naturalistic behaviours. Before using food-based enrichment it is important to communicate with the zoo nutritionist or vet to aid planning diets, as using food based enrichment commonly leads to animals being over fed palatable items, which could cause weight or dental problems7. Fig 1 & 2: male and female (Dupont, 2015) Methodology: The main aim of this study was to evaluate feeding approaches to increase the activity levels in Alaotran gentle lemurs. The study conducted was at Birmingham Wildlife Conservation Park on two Alaotran gentle lemurs; there was one female and one male who are siblings. The study had four treatments which were no feed (control), bowl feed, scatter feed and hanging basket feed. Each of the feed treatments given to each lemur for six days, with four hours of observations each day. Two of the hours of observation were the lemurs had no feed; this was done to ensure there were no activities prior to the study that would affect their behaviour. Before the study, preliminary observations and a pilot study were conducted to allow the observer to gain a better understanding of the lemur’s behaviour and to accurately distinguish physical differences between the lemurs. A behavioural ethogram is a list and description of behaviours that are likely to be displayed by an animal that is being observed. Once the ethogram was made, the behaviours were separated between active and inactive behavioural categories. An observation sheet with the list of behaviours from the ethogram was made and there was a separate column for where the observer would write down the times the behaviour occurred. Just before observations took place the observer would stand outside the enclosure for 5 minutes to allow the animals to habituate to their presence, the observer had a stopwatch and a sampling sheet. A chosen lemur for the day would be observed, and once the five-minute habituation period was over they would start the stop watch, the behaviour they displayed on 0 would be recorded firstly, each time the behaviour changed the time on the stopwatch would be recorded in a specific row depending on which behaviour occurred next. This form of sampling is known as continuous sampling and it allows the observer to record exactly how long a behaviour occurred in a specific timeframe. For the first two hours the lemurs were observed with no feed, at the start of the third hour the feeding enrichment was placed into the enclosure and the lemur would be monitored for another two hours until the four-hour period was over. Results: Using the raw data recorded by the continuous sampling, the average percentage of time spent performing each behaviour for each treatment was calculated. This data was used to establish a time budget displayed below.

Figure 3: Time budget for the average time each behaviour was performed in each of the four treatments. (Source: Authors Own).

15 The time budget effectively illustrates the differences between the behaviours in each treatment. During the feeding times, the lemurs spent the largest portion of their time feeding, with an average of 27% of their time spent eating. When there was, no food offered the lemurs spent a considerable amount of time performing inactive behaviours such as sitting (19%) standing (13%) and resting (12%). The main difference between the no feed treatment and feeding treatments was the amount of time the lemurs spent licking physical items within the enclosure (14%) which was significantly higher than any other treatment period. During the bowl feed the lemurs mainly spent their time performing inactive behaviours such as resting (12%), sleeping (14%), sitting (13%) and standing (11%). During the scatter feed even though the lemurs spent large portions of time performing inactive behaviours, sitting (17%) and standing (12%), the time budget shows they spent the largest amount of time performing foraging behaviours (14%) compared to any other treatment. During the hanging basket feed the most commonly performed inactive behaviour was standing (16%) but on average they walked substantially more (12%) than any other treatment. The lemurs spent small portions of their time performing behaviours such as allogrooming, climbing, chewing, defecating, drinking, fighting, grooming, jumping, mounting, out of sight and running throughout all treatments. After the time budget was established, a Kruskal-Wallis Test was performed on the data for the two Alaotran gentle lemurs. To compare whether their activity levels differed between the bowl feed, scatter feed, hanging basket feed and no feed and to establish if the data showed that there was a significant statistical difference between the treatments. The Kruskal-Wallis Test is a non-parametric test that is used to identify the significance between two or more groups of an independent variable. This test does not require the data to be normally distributed. The results of The Kruskal-Wallis test are displayed below. Table 1: Kruskal-Wallis One Way Analysis of Variance results including medians (Source: Authors own).

There was a large range between the enrichment treatments in terms of mean ranks (MR) and medians (M) (Scatter feed MR= 62.79, M=1978 and hanging basket feed MR=55.71, M=1571) and the non-enriching feeds (Bowl feed MR=31.25, M=876 and No feed MR= 23.08, M=582.5). The range between the enrichment feeds and the non-enrichment feeds shows that food-based environmental enrichment has an influence on increasing the activity levels of Alaotran gentle lemurs. Furthermore, the results were significantly higher at the enriching feeds in terms of activity than non-enrichment feeds. The results of the Kruskal-Wallis Test were significant (H=44.60, 3 d.f, P=<0.001). This reveals that the null hypothesis of food-based environmental enrichment having no influence on Alaotran gentle lemur’s activity levels can be rejected, meaning the results that food based enrichment increasing activity levels in Alaotran gentle lemurs is significant. Discussion: The main strengths to this study were that preliminary observations and pilot studies were conducted before the initial study, meaning the observer could make distinctions between the two lemurs, as there is no sexual dimorphism in the species. It was important as the species had not been readily used in many other enrichment studies and a behavioural repertoire needed to be established, without the preliminary observations and pilot studies behaviours such as licking physical items would had been missed off the observation sheet. The study used continuous sampling which produces an exact record of behaviours displayed during a specific time frame, which is needed to analyse the occurrence of active behaviours. The main limitation of the study was a larger sample size was needed to see if the results represent the whole population of captive Alaotran gentle lemurs. To further enhance the study, the use of recording material to prevent the lemur’s behaviour being affected by an observer would be desirable. In addition, this would help to rule out error. 16 Conclusion: Alaotran gentle lemurs were brought into zoological collections due to their critically endangered status in the wild, where there captive breeding programs was of great importance. Within captivity, it has been illustrated that there is a weight management problem within captive lemurs, with a large portion of lemurs being overweight or obese. The main aim of this study was to investigate whether feed based environmental enrichment, that has been shown to boost physical fitness, reproduction and psychological welfare of animals, can be used to increase the activity levels of the Alaotran gentle lemurs residing at Birmingham Wildlife Conservation Park. The study used four treatments (Scatter feed, Basket feed, Bowl feed and no feed) to examine whether there was a difference in activity levels between the treatments. From the results, the hypothesis; feed enrichment can be used to increase the activity levels of Alaotran gentle lemurs was accepted.

Acknowledgements: I would like to thank Birmingham Wildlife conservation park, especially Caroline Howard for allowing me to conduct my study and to Katrina Jenkinson and Meng Kam for helping me to edit my work. References: 1. International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). 2014. Hapalemur Alaotrensis. [Online]. International Union for Conservation of Nature. Available from: http://www.iucnredlist.org/details/9676/0 [Accessed 12 November 2014]. 2. Beattie, J. C. and Feistner, A. T. C. 1998. Husbandry and breeding of the Alaotran gentle lemur at Jersey Wildlife Preservation Trust. International Zoo Yearbook, 36 (1), pp.11-19. [On-line]. Available from: http:// onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1748- 1090.1998.tb02880.x/pdf [Accessed 12 November 2014]. 3. British and Irish Association of Zoos and Aquariums (BIAZA). 2012. Obesity in Captive Lemurs. [On-line]. British and Irish Association of Zoos and Aquariums. Available from: http://www.biaza.org.uk/news/766/15/ Obesity-in-Captive-Lemurs/ [Accessed 1 December 2014]. 4. Coffman, B. S. and Terranova, C. J. 1997. Body Weight of Wild and Captive Lemurs. Zoo Biology, 16 (1), pp.17- 30. [On-line]. Available from: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/(SICI)1098-2361(1997)16:1%3C17::A IDZOO4%3E3.0.CO;2-E/pdf [Accessed 29 November 2014]. 5. Kaumanns, W. and Schwitzer, C. 2001. Body Weights of Ruffed Lemurs (Varecia Variegata) in European Zoos With Reference to the Problem of Obesity. Zoo Biology, 20 (4), pp.261- 269. [On-line]. Available from: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/zoo.1026/pdf [Accessed 3 December 2014]. 6. Young, R.J.2003. Environmental Enrichment for Captive Animals. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing. 7. Flores, J. P. 2006. Enrichment Programs for Lemurs. The Shape of Enrichment, 15 (3), pp.6- 7.

ABWAK MEMBERS - Don’t forget the website & social media ABWAK announcements are made using our website, members newsletter, facebook and twitter. Don’t forget the members’ only area of the website too. Workshops & the Symposium are booked via the website, as is membership/renewal - please remember to complete any forms that are requested as well as making payment (we are looking at improving this even more in future). Payment is taken using ‘paypal’- note you do not need a paypal account, you simply use your debit/credit card and the payment is made via paypal to us. Membership applications - please don’t forget to give the details requested on the application form. Also please don’t be offended if we ask you for more information/to clarify your status and eligibility for membership. Also note that if your circumstances change, your membership status upon renewal application may also change. We are especially delighted when an Associate member who is for example, studying animal care, gains employment as a keeper and upon renewal can be enroled as a Professional member. ABWAK Merchandise is also available via the website. www.abwak.org www.iczoo.org 17 Breeding the Forgotten Turaco My Experiences With the Purple Crested Turaco (Gallirex porphyreolophus) Christopher Benjamin Kent

Many will be familiar with the turaco family, excitable, active and beautiful birds which are very popular in public collections due to their variable colours, calls and (more or less) friendly nature. Of these species only 3 are considered threatened by any definition, with

Bernard Dupont Bernard only the the Bannerman’s turaco ( bannermani) being considered endangered by IUCN. The purple crested turaco is considered least concern, although the olive breasted subspecies (Gallirex porphyreolophus chlorochlamys) is heavily hunted in Tanzania for it’s stunning magenta primary feathers, a trait it shares with the nominate subspecies, the feathers taking a slightly darker, pinker hue when compared to most other turaco species, the species is one of a small handful suspected to be in decline and frustratingly much of what we do know about their wild populations is patchy and derived from decades old data, no actual population numbers have ever been formulated. They are the national bird of the Kingdom of Swaziland due to their regal appearance and cultural relevance. They typically measure around 45cm and weight in at around 250g as adults.

My interest in this species started many years ago Typically build relatively flimsy nests in seeing a head shot on a poster, but I never dreamed captivity, although have been observed to make that I would one day be able to work so closely with considerably better nests in the wild. The purple that species. A chance sighting of a small group in the crested is no exception to this rule, the only wild, tumbling through the trees during a trip in Kruger difference compared with other turaco species in national park cemented my love for them. my experience is they prefer more privacy and in the wild are known to nest in the taller parts of Skip forward to 2015 and the opportunity arose to get trees. It took some experimenting to get this right, involved with a species that until then I was not aware most traditional nest trays were ignored, in the end of in captivity and it would seem for good reason, I opted to re-purpose the bottom half of a disused this species is incredibly rare in the UK and scarce parrot nest box, which had higher sides, providing almost everywhere else which presents it’s own set a visual barrier to the birds when nesting but cut of problems further down the line with maintaining low enough that a stretched neck could observe population genetics long term. After extensive the surroundings if needed. This design was a research it would seem only one zoo in the British winner and the birds quickly started to nest build. Isles holds them and enough private keepers to count Great objection was taken to any attempt to add on one hand. It is perhaps sad that the bolder pink to the nest, with all added material being removed, breasted subspecies makes up all of these numbers something that would later cause problems. and the rarer olive breasted is, as far as I’m aware, non existent in the UK. The birds courted heavily during this period, with lots of chasing, hooting and calling (the territorial The pair in question are unrelated, captive bred and call is a wonderful 20+ note ascending cry). After relatively young which offers plenty of scope for future the first observed mating, which the female always breeding, when they first arrived they were jumpy and instigates, they continued to mate regularly for a excitable, but time and a small amount of target training further 3 days until the first egg arrived. An odd (and plenty of blueberries) have calmed them down, habit observed was that usually within one or two which in the long term makes life easier for both them days of the first egg 4-5 small round stones would and myself, reducing stress in the birds and making be left near/in the feed bowls, something I would them more tractable when it comes to any husbandry have ignored had the same not been repeated later needs (nest checks, health checks, shifting, etc...). on in the same way under identical circumstances. The enter and leave the nest, also more perching on the second egg was laid on the third day after a 48 hour outside for ease of entry. There was some initial upset wait and both parents immediately began to incubate, about the changes but within days they were back taking turns to relieve one another at roughly 1 hour nest building in the new box, mating started again intervals. From this point it was hands off for anything and within two days the small stones turned up on other than essentials. This being my first time dealing the feed tray and the following day an egg was laid with the species in such close quarters I discovered in typical turaco fashion, straight off the perch and that their natural defence when disturbed on the nest onto the floor, broken. Luck changed 48 hours later is to defecate, this would presumably put off any wild when the second egg was laid perfectly within the mammalian predators who might try to interfere. Not new nest, this being the last try I was willing to make wishing to create a mess in the nest they were left to it. this year everything would ride on that one egg. They diligently incubated for the term and nothing From this point everything was straightforward, came of the eggs. Reluctantly defeat was admitted, incubation just as before and on 10/08/16 a healthy but still having time in the summer and the hen being chick pipped and hatched. They had been excitable in good condition and keen to try again the situation the day before and suspicions were confirmed when looked safe. When candled it seemed that the eggs I heard the loud crunching of turaco eggshell that had been fertile but had terminated at about one week morning’s feeds as the parents ate it. Giving them in, this matched up to some loud gas works in the local a couple of days to settle the chick was removed area which must have caused a disturbance, in spite of for a health check and weigh in on day 4, with the efforts to soundproof, the nest was clearly not vibration bird weighing a healthy 45g, which by comparison proof and they both seemed to have sat light from that to other species at this age is heavy, but it must be point. There were also concerns about the stability of remembered that most weights are taken by those the nest, with both going in and out regularly it had hand rearing and weighing before first feed, so a few taken a battering and had the eggs hatched it didn’t of those extra grams would have been food. During seem likely any chicks would do well in what was left this time standard support food was given for rearing of it. parents; soaked T20, finely chopped papaya and banana dusted with Nutrobal to support the rapid In the short time between the second attempt the bone and feather growth young turacos go through in nesting box was bolstered considerably with thicker their first fortnight. The parents received their usual twigs and safely secured with discrete cable ties so diet, just chopped smaller to avoid any problems that they could not be removed, rolled up newspaper should they try to use this to feed. The feeds were was also added below to absorb any mess and repeated twice a day, one at 7:30am and another at vibration. Having read that in the wild they prefer more 3pm with all foods being removed by 8pm to prevent cover than most some large artificial (and cleanable) stale food being given in the morning. monstera leaves were included, which were arched over the top forming a visual barrier, but one that could On the chick’s second check up (21/08/16) it was be seen through in parts and easily pushed past to growing normally and had doubled in weight, now

19 weighing in at around 100g, it was close rung at Whilst this is by no means a breeding first for this this point and showed the first signs of being a true species (UK first is listed as 1988) it is still interesting member of it’s species by defecating all over me, information on a seldom encountered bird on which something it had not done first time around. little real information is available. As the chick grew and became active it became At present the species is not considered endangered, increasingly more difficult to check it’s weight but given it’s specific importance in certain countries manually, but it was visually healthy and I had no and cultures, the increases in recreational hunting concerns that there might be problems. In due course in certain regions and the desirability of turacos red a mesh ladder was set up from the ground so that as feathers in general for decoration, it is not outside of the youngster experimented with flight it could find the realms of reality that this species or at least one it’s way back to the safety of the nest. It was unusual of it’s sub-species could become so in future. Our that this pair in particular (could be typical of the lack of good numbers and information could form a species) preferred evening time to teach the chick major stumbling block for ex-situ captive conservation to move around and indeed as adults they seem to efforts in future should this be the case. It can only be have a semi-crepuscular nature, being most active hoped my contributions so far might help strengthen in the evenings just before sunset. It is interesting the collective information on this often overlooked to note that at this early age the youngster uses species. a simple 6 note hooting call which is never heard I am always interested to hear from others about in the adults, it also projects its call in such a way their experiences with these birds, if you wish to get that it sounds like it is in an entirely separate area, in touch or if you have any specific questions I can be much like some small songbirds, had I not observed contacted at [email protected]. it’s movements myself I would have suspected an escape. At this early point a guess is that this ability *At the time of editing this article, at roughly 4 months functions as a way to alert parents whilst confusing old the youngster is almost grown and still with the predators that might wish to locate the young, or parents, as it has aged further the more traditional could also be a product of the differences in the adult call can be heard. The red eye ring is almost physics of human/turaco hearing, it is still however fully developed, and to all intents and purposes unusual that it only occurs in the youngsters if this is maturing into a fine example of it’s species and were the case. continues to thrive. Before long the bird was moving around, beginning to feed freely by itself and growing well. Applying some short, tough, clean astroturf to some of the perches seemed to help it develop it’s grip and keep its feet clean when hopping and can now tackle the length of it’s outside flight with ease. As the chicks plumage develops, as with some other species (which can later lose this colouration, pink is one of the first colours to appear through the fuzzy black down feathers. At this age It is suspected the chick is male based on the volume of pink on the breast, but like those other species this colour may recede back and the bird may prove to be female, even then volume of pink is never 100% accurate when sexing this species. As youngsters they lack the characteristic red eye ring seen in adults. DNA sexing will be carried out to confirm this when the need to catch the bird comes up, I make a habit of not catching up birds with nets unless necessary as most day to day observations can be made with their target training and their training suffers as a result of being caught up, damaging the bond of trust, which with parent reared turacos is not the easiest to maintain. On that front the chick is making good progress, observing and learning from it’s parents and now taking rewards from multiple people. The next step will be to form that into productive 20 behaviours, but it is allowed to develop at it’s own pace at this point. Studying an Amur leopard to identify the triggers for stereotypic behaviour Anna Riach and Nathan Campion Askham Bryan College Big cats are a popular focus for research studies in zoos especially for student projects. This may be because big cats include charismatic species which inspire people or because a number of these animals exhibit noticeable stereotypical behaviours which students wish to address. There are many available studies recording the behaviour of big cats1,2,3, however, these studies often record the presence of stereotyping only without collecting data that could help uncover why the stereotyping might be occurring. While it has been proposed that certain stereotypies may be a form of enrichment4, stereotypies are more commonly perceived to be an indication of an unhappy or stressed animal5. Stereotypies can cause concern among keeping staff and the visiting public. For these reasons, it is important that big cat research projects attempt to investigate causes of such behaviour in an individual animal, to help collections improve the welfare of the animal and address staff and visitor concerns. Here we demonstrate one way of doing this where we record not only the behaviour of an Amur leopard (Panthera pardus orientalis) but also events occurring around the animal’s enclosure at , Doncaster, UK. Yorkshire Wildlife Park has held a male Amur leopard for four years which periodically displays repetitive pacing and head rolling. Staff had concerns that the high number of visitors that visit the park may have had a negative impact upon the animal causing it to stereotype. For this reason an attempt to screen the enclosure from the public by planting a hedge had been made. Staff also suspected that feeding times, presence of “favourite” keepers or activity of the other animals held in the collection could be influencing the stereotyping behaviour of the Amur leopard. Data was collected using a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet on a laptop. An initial pilot study determined the frequency of data collection and found that the best place for collecting data was from the raised visitor platform at one end of the enclosure (indicated in Fig. 1). Fig. 1 Amur leopard enclosure at Yorkshire Wildlife Park (as laid out in summer 2015). Blue lines indicate where visitors can stand by enclosure and the red circle shows recorder position. Using information from the keepers on where they thought the public had the most effect, three different areas around the enclosure were identified and the number of visitors was counted every five minutes. Visitor numbers were totalled over these three different areas since no area in particular showed any association with the leopard’s behaviour. Large groups of children were recorded as “school group present” as well as included in the total number of visitors around the enclosure. The behaviour of the leopard was also recorded every five minutes using an ethogram created during the pilot study. All other events that happened around the enclosure were recorded to the closest minute when they occurred. These events included the presence of the maintenance vehicle; keepers giving talks; keepers present in the off-show area; keepers present around other parts of the enclosure; tigers or giraffe in adjacent enclosures moving within sight of the leopard; tigers or lions vocalising and leopard feeding time. Data was recorded for 28 hours over six weekdays during the park’s opening hours during the school holidays in August 2015. Weather for each day was also recorded though was 21 not used in the analysis. Over the six days of data recording there were 12 instances of stereotyping observed lasting less than 5 min to over 75 min. Fig. 2 shows the number of visitors recorded throughout the six days with the highest number of visitors recorded in the middle of each day. The lines in red indicate the times when the leopard was stereotyping and show that the leopard was not more likely to stereotype when there was a large number of visitors in the middle of the day. Therefore the number of visitors did not appear to be causing the stereotyping behaviour In addition, the length of time the stereotyping was recorded for (to the nearest five minutes) did not correlate with the number of visitors (Fig. 3). Therefore the large number of visitors did not make the stereotyping more intense or worse in terms of how long the leopard paced. There were two instances of stereotyping when no event was recorded (Table 1). The presence of the keeper vehicle, loud groups of school children or keepers in areas of the enclosure other than the off show area, did not appear to be associated with the onset of the leopard stereotyping. Lion vocalisations and the tiger being active in sight of the leopard were not observed enough times to evaluate their effect on the leopard. However, the important result is that out of the eight times keepers were observed to go to the off-show area, six of these were when the leopard started to stereotype (Table 1). The number of visitors did not appear to be associated with the onset of the stereotyping or the length of time the leopard spent stereotyping. Therefore it seems unlikely that the visitors are a cause of stress in the leopard. This means the screening of the enclosure from visitors is unlikely to affect the occurrence of stereotyping. This is a positive result since screening can prevent the paying public from viewing the animals. Of the other events recorded during the study, keepers in the off-show, rear part of the enclosure were identified as being the most likely factor to trigger the onset of stereotyping. This may be because the possibility of being shut out of sleeping quarters causes anxiety in the leopard. This anxiety may be a product of not having access to sleeping quarters in the past when an unknown, negative experience has occurred in the outside enclosure. Alternatively, the welfare of captive animals can be improved by giving them the choice over their surroundings including giving them access to off-show areas6. Therefore, it is feasible that when there is a possibility of the choice of access being taken away from the leopard, he becomes stressed and displays pacing. Distracting the leopard in some way before keepers walk down to the off-show area could be trialled to evaluate if this decreases stereotyping. This study differed from previous big cat projects conducted in the park7,8 in that the focus of the observer was on recording the environment surrounding the enclosure oppose to the behaviour of the animal. This approach has shown to be useful in providing an indication of why the stereotyping might occur and therefore potentially improves the welfare of the animal. The value of results from future projects could be increased by encouraging researchers to record more of the events surrounding the enclosure when studying zoo animals displaying undesirable behaviours. Acknowledgements Many thanks to the staff at Yorkshire Wildlife Park especially the carnivore keeping team. References 1. Sellinger, R. L. & Ha, J. C. (2017) The Effects of Visitor Density and Intensity on the Behavior of Two Captive Jaguars (Panthera onca). Journal of Applied Animal Welfare Science 8(4), 233-244. 2. Apelqvist, M. (2014) Behaviour in Amur leopard (Panthera pardus orientalis) at two Swedish zoos. (Dissertation, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences). 3. Vaz, J. (2015) Evaluation of stereotypic behaviours and faecal corticosterone levels of captive felids in six Indian zoos. (MSc thesis, A.V.C. College Mannampandal). 4. Mason, G. J. & Latham, N. R. (2004) Can’t stop, won’t stop: Is stereotypy a reliable animal welfare indicator? Animal Welfare 13, S57–69. 5. Mason, G. J. (1991) Stereotypies: a critical review. Animal Behaviour 41(6), 1015–1037. 6. Owen, M. A., Swaisgood, R. R., Czekala, N. M. & Lindburg, D. G. (2005) Enclosure Choice and Well-Being in Giant Pandas : Is It All About Control? Zoo Biology 24, 475–481. 7. King, L. (2013) A Comparative Analysis of the Daily Activity Budget, Enclosure Use and Captive Behaviour of the Male Amur Leopard (Panthera pardus orientalis). (MSc thesis, The Manchester Metropolitan University). 8. Barret, G. (2013) Does Enclosure Size Affect the Behaviour of Captive Amur Leopards (Panthera pardus orientalis)? (Dissertation, University of Hull). 23 White-Footed Tamarin Conservation Workshop, Colombia, 2016 Greg Clifton Senior Keeper Twycross Zoo, EAZA Callitrichid TAG member

In Colombia there are several species of threatened Callitrichid and, due to the rapid decline of wild populations, there is a clear conservation role for well-managed and co-ordinated captive breeding programmes. In December 2016 I was asked if I would like to take part in a workshop that Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust have been running in Colombia since 2010 to help train keepers of zoos and rescue centres in this area to understand the needs and problems of keeping this species in captivity. The main focus species for this workshop was the native white-footed tamarin (Saguinus leucopus), a species that has faced an increased pressure over the years from deforestation and the illegal pet trade. These threats often result in the animals ending up in overcrowded rescue centres with poor welfare and management making the population unsustainable. The day arrived to fly to Colombia, a country which I had visited a number of times but this would be my first time to Bogota and working with white-footed tamarins. I flew with three staff members from Durrell, Dominic Wormell, Tim Wright and Gale Glendewar, and a cameraman Phil Bouchard from 3C International who would be documenting the workshop. After a very long flight we arrived and met up with Jennifer Mickelberg, a small population management expert and the primate curator at Zoo Atlanta who has helped with many workshops like this one. This was the 6th workshop that Durrell has run in Colombia with the help from the Colombian Association of Zoos and Aquariums (ACOPAZOA) and the European Association of Zoos and Aquaria (EAZA) Callitrichid Taxon Advisory Groups. This workshop was being hosted by Piscilago Zoo which is situated approximately 3 hours from Bogota. This 5 day workshop was excellently attended with many keepers and managers from Colombia’s zoos, many of whom had to travel a long way to attend. Natural history, wild population, conservation and education were only a few of the topics covered over the first few days both in Spanish and in English (with the help of a brilliant translator). Each talk led to questions and discussions which gave the opportunity for people to share their experiences, something that was great to see. Hot topics of debate were funding, re-release and genetics. The rest of the workshop was made up of talks on captive management of Callitrichids within zoos and rescue centres. Talks on housing, stress management, diet, UV and stress free catch up techniques were discussed. I did a talk on training and scale training Callitrichids that we do at Twycross Zoo. The talk was really well received and I got a lot of interest from keepers wanting to try the techniques discussed back at their own collections. One of the best bits of the workshop for me was the hands-on, interactive parts. One afternoon I helped out with the practical session of the workshop teaching enclosure design on some of Piscilago Zoo’s Callitrichids enclosure. Piscilago’s staff had got some plants, branches, rope and nest boxes to use in the design. As well as this I had also brought some useful items with me like carabiners, cable ties and eye hooks which had been kindly donated by ZooProfis, Masseys of Swadlincote and The Wates group. This was a great chance for me to help and even though I don’t speak Spanish I found that this was really good way of teaching them about enrichment and some of the methods of managing this group of primates. Working in smaller groups we were each given an empty enclosure to rebuild and at the end we would all critique each other’s work and explained if it would be good for them or not. This was a great opportunity for the delegates to put the theory that they had just been taught in to the mornings into practice.

The whole five days were really rewarding and I learnt a lot which I hope to put into practice and I’m now looking forward to the next one. After the workshop had finished we travelled around visiting some of the attendee’s rescues centres, people who had been to all the workshops over the years to see how they had embraced what they had learnt and what they had put into practice. One of rescue centres which we visited belong to Oscar Ospina Herrera. Oscar has been coming to the workshop for years and had come a long way in his improvements with the husbandly of the white- footed tamarin in his care due to what he had learnt through the workshops.

25 I was told that the tamarins used to be kept in very small, overcrowded cages, but now they live in very tall enclosure with the right social grouping. It was really great to see the team from Durrell happy about what he and others had achieved from their workshop and their hard work. I was very glad to be a part this workshop and I even got to see my first wild white-footed Tamarin, which was absolutely stunning! I couldn’t have been a part of this workshop without the help of ABWAK’s grant scheme who helped me with the cost of the flight to Colombia. I am very grateful for all the help they have given me over the years and I was very proud to be a ABWAK member and a UK zoo keeper. I would like to thank: ABWAK, Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust, Twycross Zoo, ZooProfis, Masseys of Swadlincote, The Wates group and Mr & Mrs D Lloyd.

A note from ABWAK: ABWAK was delighted to support Greg and this training workshop in Colombia as part of our mission to achieve and advance the highest standards of excellence in wild animal care, and our commitment to the international keeper community (as a founding member of ICZ). We were able to provide this grant thanks to our success with our UK workshops, a percentage of the income from which is allocated to hosts for their conservation campaigns/work, and some of which has been given back to ABWAK for furthering our objectives. ABWAK Grants are usually a small sum made available primarily to support attendance at our Symposium or workshops in the UK & Ireland, and in an ICZ year we also provide grants to support attendance at the ICZ conference by ABWAK members. In the past couple of years only a few members have been applying for grant support. We are therefore in the process of reviewing what grants we can offer, and are announcing a new grant this March as well. Please check our website & social media for 26 updates and information. Book Review by Russell Tofts: Bovids of the World: Antelopes, Gazelles, Cattle, Goats, Sheep, and Relatives (Princeton Field Guides) José R. Castelló. Foreword by Brent Huffman and Colin Groves Princeton University Press, 2016. Paperback 664 pages. There was a time, not all that long ago, when we knew, or thought we knew, how many species of large mammal there were in the world. Of course, there was always a possibility that other species, hitherto unknown to science, might be discovered in a patch of virgin tropical forest somewhere but, on the whole, we allowed ourselves to feel rather smug about things, secure in the knowledge that we had a shrewd idea about the numbers. When Dr Desmond Morris, then Curator of Mammals at the Zoological Society of London, published his landmark book, The Mammals: A Guide to the Living Species, in 1965 – the first book attempting to list every extant mammalian species – he named 128 species belonging to the family Bovidae. At the time this was an accurate figure, but we now know it was a gross underestimate. Whilst a precise definition of a species is still a matter of heated debate in taxonomic circles, a new book, Bovids of the World, published in 2016, endorses the current view that, far from there being fewer than 130 species, there are, in fact, an astonishing 279 bovine species, to say nothing of innumerable subspecies. This mushrooming of the number of bovids reflects what it happening across all taxonomic groups. The increase is, perhaps, most striking with the bovids because they, being generally large, impressive and often charismatic mammals, command more attention and are easier to study than, say, rodents or bats. The 118% increase in the number of species is not due to a sudden wave of new bovid discoveries during the fifty-one years that separate the two books – although there was the discovery of the saola or Vu Quang ox (Pseudoryx nghetinhensis) in Vietnam and Laos in 1993 to shake the zoological world out of its complacency – but largely because of recent advancements in mitochondrial DNA screening that have led to many known species being split into two, three, or sometimes even more, separate species. Doubtless more ‘splits’ will be proposed in the future. Increasingly, too, existing subspecies are being elevated to full specific status. Scientific names, which I grew up believing were generally immutable, seem to be in a constant state of flux as opinions waver on how one species might, or might not, be closely related to another. This tendency of biologists to split species was inevitable once they started exploring the DNA (who would have suspected, for example, that there should be two distinct kinds of domestic buffalo, with differing numbers of chromosomes?), but it is frustrating for those of us who, from an early age, committed to memory the name of every species of gazelle, duiker, dik-dik, and so on, and now find all this knowledge is redundant and that we need to re-learn much of what we thought we knew. For example, as an animal-mad teenager in the 1970s, I knew there were only two serow species. These were the serow (Capricornis sumatraensis) and the smaller Japanese serow (C. crispus), and an even smaller race of the latter (C. crispus swinhoe) found on the island formerly known as Formosa (Taiwan). That has all changed. Nowadays seven full species are officially recognised (the Sumatran, Chinese, Indochinese, Himalayan, Japanese, Red, and Formosan serows). It is all very confusing. With so many species comprising the Bovidae, the man behind this book, José Castelló, made his task immeasurably more difficult by his decision to include multiple illustrations of each species and selected subspecies to show males, females, and juveniles, and, if relevant, the animal in both summer and winter coats. Furthermore the illustrations were not to be the usual artists’ drawings or paintings, but photographs. The only other volume to comprehensively illustrate the new bovid , Handbook of the Mammals of the World (Lynx Edicions, 2011), relied heavily on artists’ depictions, and that book, by dint of its considerable size and weight, is unlikely to be taken into the bush very often. 27 The Castelló book lives up to its ‘field guide’ appellation, being compact enough to be carried around in a backpack or large pocket, even if it is, of necessity, quite a heavy book as you would expect for a reference work getting on for 700 pages in length. You might think that sourcing photographs of some of the well-known species, for example gemsbok, might be easy enough, but not when faced with finding photographs of both subspecies, the Kalahari gemsbok (Oryx gazella gazella) and the Angolan gemsbok (O. g. blainei). As Castelló points out, the validity of these two subspecies is not universally accepted, but both are described here in full and both are illustrated to show the phenotypical differences between them. And that is only one species. Multiple those difficulties by the number of species and subspecies, some of them little-known and rarely photographed before, and you get an idea of the amount of work that went into compiling this book. Perhaps even more remarkably, José Castelló is not even a professional zoologist. He is a medical doctor with a particular interest in zoology and biology. In the foreword, Brent Huffman gives an example of the effort that went into photographing just one of those species, the Aders’s duiker (Cephalophus adersi). To obtain the images took months of planning, two weeks of travelling, six international plane flights, and no fewer than 602 clicks of the shutter button. Given the scale of the challenge, it is hardly surprising that not quite every bovid described is illustrated. A few taxa – but very few – seem to have evaded the camera, including the Anatolian chamois (Rupicapra asiatica) and Caucasian chamois (R. a. caucasica), for they are not pictured. In all there are more than 1,500 photographs. With such outstanding production values, it is astonishing that the retail price is not considerably higher. This is an essential reference work for field workers, conservationists, and anyone working with these animals in captivity. All the bovines are here, from the rarest, most elusive forest antelope to the ubiquitous, domestic bovids, and almost all species or subspecies command a double-page spread. Illustrations and a description, including horn morphology, occupy the left-hand page, accompanied by detailed biological information on the facing page. This format might seem entirely logical, but it is surprising how many field guides frustratingly offer the text, illustration and distribution map on different pages or even in different sections. Text includes alternative names by which the species is known (including non-English and local names), subspecies, similar species it may be confused with in the field, reproduction, behaviour, distribution, habitat, and conservation status. The photographic images usefully incorporate the pointer (or ‘Peterson’) system, first introduced into field guides in 1934 by the ornithologist Roger Tory Peterson, to highlight key distinguishing features in the field between similar species. The size of each beast is graphically illustrated by a silhouette of the relevant bovid shown next to a silhouette of an adult human for comparison. An indispensible final section illustrates bovid skulls and horns to enable identification of bleached skulls, stripped of all flesh by vultures and other scavengers, that a user of this book, working in the field, may chance upon. The book is a smart, worthy addition to any zoological library, even if further taxonomic changes may mean that a second edition will probably be required before too long, as it seems unlikely that the number of officially recognised bovine species will abate at 279. The modern trend for splitting species will almost certainly continue, and there may yet be other species, currently unknown to science, poised to reveal themselves. It is entirely within the realms of possibility that a future edition of this book may even contain a description and photographs of that most controversial of ungulates, the kting voar (Pseudonovibos spiralis), a bovid reputed to exist in Cambodia and Vietnam that at present is known only from a few pairs of unusual spiral horns (some of which have turned out to be fake), native anecdotal tales, and an old, unclear, black-and-white photograph of a dead animal that may, or may not, be what it purports to be. Scientists are divided on whether the animal exists. Princeton University Press publishes a staggering number and variety of high quality field guides of which this is one, not all of them concerned with mammals or birds. For instance, some of the other field guides published by Princeton cover North American bumblebees, the palms of southern Asia, minerals of the world, and there is even a field guide to the seeds of Amazonian plants (surely an esoteric subject if ever there was one). Let us hope it won’t be long before Princeton considers bringing out a companion volume to Bovids to cover the other artiodactyl families, including deer (though, on second thoughts, the Cervidae would make a sizeable field guide by itself), giraffes, pigs and peccaries, and chevrotains. Russell Tofts 28 ISBN: 978-0-691-16717-6 RRP: £27.95 / U.S. $35.00 Writing for RATEL - Guidelines to Authors Submit articles to [email protected] Feature articles – approx 4 to 8 sides of A4 (longer articles are considered, the journal is however only 28 pages each issue). ‘Short’ articles usually 2 pages A4. Microsoft Word 11 or 12 pt Arial or Times New Roman font preferred. The piece should have a title, author name(s), place of employment/study, job role, and then the text. Your contact email address will only be published if it is included within the article submission. Content – permission to report on events etc in a zoo is assumed to have been granted to the author and it is their responsibility to ensure all content is acceptable to the zoo(s) and staff involved. Opinion and comment should be identified as such, and publication does not reflect any endorsement or recommendation by ABWAK. Content should not be libelous and must be the original work of the author(s) and the editor reserves the right to reject articles if this is known to be not the case. ABWAK prefers original and unique work, however, the article may have been published or submitted for publication elsewhere – this information should be provided with the submission. Articles reporting upon studies/events more than 5 years ago are unlikely to be published unless the historical context is a key part of the article/topic. We aim to keep articles as current as possible (ideally reporting upon studies and events that have recently been completed or are on-going). Dissertations/college projects - we will publish articles resulting from such work but the editor and ABWAK will not edit project and dissertation submissions - you must create an article and submit that. Illustrations – please supply as labeled separate image files (JPEG etc). The journal is published in colour throughout. You must have permsision to use for publication any illustrations you include in the article. Tables and Graphs/Charts – these may be included within the main text, however, separate graphs and excel data files etc are useful to have, and usually ensure better reproduction in print. Photographs are also considered for the front cover - portrait format are best for this, but landscape can be used. If people are included in any photograph then permission to reproduce the image is assumed to have been obtained. Acknowledgements/credits will be included if provided. References should be included if relevant. Commercial reference – products that are integral to the content can be mentioned, e.g a type of foodstuff or medicine used and supplier. However, we reserve the right to edit if the commercial reference is seen to be an advertisement. (Advertisements are charged for in the journal). Audience – the majority of readers are zookeepers, staff working in zoos, and students undertaking animal care courses. Articles should be written for the general and/or specialist reader and appropriate references given within the article and listed at the end. If animal/plant scientific names are given the usual common name should also be used/given and illustrations are most welcome. The editor may edit articles for spelling, grammar and/or content, and we may decide not to publish or not to use all the illustrations. If there are major suggested changes the article will usually be sent back to the author for checking/modification. Authors will receive a complimentary copy of the journal in which their article is published. No payment is made. Copyright of the published article belongs to ABWAK and the author. ABWAK may reproduce the article and images for its own purposes and this may include online. Any further questions and for submissions please contact the editor by email [email protected] Publication Dates: the journal is published 4 times a year: March, June, September and December. Submission Dates: you may submit material at ANY time, the deadlines for each issue are: 23rd January; 23rd April; 23rd July; 23rd October Stephen P Woollard Acting Editor Vision: “To achieve and advance the highest standards of excellence in wild animal care”

Mission: “ABWAK is a membership organisation for those interested & involved in the keeping & conservation of wild animals, which seeks to achieve the highest standards of excellence in animal care through communication, cooperation, training and development” www.abwak.org

From the editor ABWAK’s new Chair, Tim Morphew ICZ Steering Committee in Argentina Yianna Cooling Monitoring Pygmy Slow Loris (Nycticebus pygmaeus) Oestrus and Pregnancy Paige Bwye ABWAK Treasure(r) - Richard Barnett Experiences in Captive Animal Training - Where To Start Selina Reid, Joanna Mason and Michelle Taylor An investigation into whether food-based environmental enrichment will increase the activity levels of Alaotran gentle lemurs (Hapalemur alaotrensis) at Birmingham Wildlife Conservation Park Micah Dupont Breeding the Forgotten Turaco -My Experiences With the Purple Crested Turaco (Gallirex porphyreolophus) Christopher Benjamin Kent Studying an Amur leopard to identify the triggers for stereotypic behaviour Anna Riach and Nathan Campion White-Footed Tamarin Conservation Workshop, Colombia, 2016 Greg Clifton Book Review: Bovids of the World: Antelopes, Gazelles, Cattle, Goats, Sheep, and Relatives (Princeton Field Guides) Russell Tofts

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