Epsilon Archive for Student Projects

Abstract

This study focused on dholes (Cuon alpinus) and their reaction to visitors at Nordens ark, Sweden. Other studies have shown that territorial species with a large habitat do not handle life in captivity well and stereotypic behaviors may develop. It is also common that animals change their behavior when humans are present. Since the dhole is an endangered species, it is important to know if they handle captivity well and if they are strongly influenced by visitors. This study focused on behaviors such as observing visitors, resting and social interaction between the individuals, and if they changed depending on whether the zoo was open for visitors or closed, and depending on the visitor intensity on the days they were open. Enclosure utilization was also observed to see if the dholes utilized the entire enclosure and if it changed depending on visitors. Some behaviors were observed by frequency; other behaviors and enclosure utilization were observed through intervals. The dholes mostly utilized one of the open enclosures and only used both when the zoo was closed to visitors. The most observed behavior when the zoo was open were “observing visitors”, carried out mainly by the three juveniles. The behavior “vocalization” was the most observed behavior when the zoo was closed and was mostly performed by the two adults. There were big differences between the juveniles and the adults in how much they performed certain behaviors depending on whether the zoo was open or closed. The juveniles performed behaviors such as “resting” and “movement” more frequently when it was open, and the adults performed them more frequently when it was closed. “Social interaction” was a behavior the juveniles performed to a higher extent than adults and more when the zoo was closed, but the adults performed the behavior more when the zoo was open. “Observing visitors”, “aggressive interaction”, “sitting/standing” and “movement” were the only behaviors that were performed more when the visitor intensity was high. When the visitor intensity was low they stalked visitors more. Dholes are a highly social and curious species, and they could have observed and followed visitors because of curiosity, but it could also be caused by stress. Habituation could be a reason why the adults did not react to the visitors as much as the juveniles. No stereotypic behavior was observed. A part of this study might be inconclusive because the female dhole whelped during the observation period, which then also means part of the results was from her maternal behaviors. The results show there was a difference in behavior depending on visitors. This highlights the need for additional research and more information about dhole behavior in captivity. A more comprehensive study on dhole behavior and the visitor effect, involving a larger sample size, would provide deeper insights into the topic.