Epsilon Archive for Student Projects

Abstract

A large variety of big and small cat species are kept in zoos around the world, and their welfare are often poor resulting in the animals engaging in stereotypic behaviors such as pacing.
To be able to give the captured cats a better life the first step is to understand them better. To this end an observation study of two sand cats (Felis margarita) kept at Parken Zoo in Eskilstuna, Sweden, was conducted. The purpose of the study was to examine the enclosure use and time budget of the sand cats, as well as investigate if any stereotypic behaviors could be observed and if so to
what extent.
The results showed that the sand cats used most of their enclosure, that they spent the majority of their time either resting or hiding under a fixed recourse. The results also showed that both sand cats engaged in the stereotypic pacing, and that the male paced a lot more than the female.
The conclusion that could be drawn was that more research into the sand cat is necessary both on the wild and the captured populations, this because a lot still is unknown about this small desert species. This study can be used as a baseline for some of the future research proposed in this thesis.