This article attempts to determine the effects of environment (captive or wild) and a simple form of environmental enrichment on the behavior and physiology of a nonhuman animal. Specifically, analyses first compared behavioral budgets and stereotypic behavior of captive coyotes (Canis latrans) in kennels and pens to their counterparts in the wild. Second, experiments examined the effect of a simple form of environmental enrichment for captive coyotes (food-filled bones) on behavioral budgets, stereotypies, and corticosteroid levels. Overall, behavioral budgets of captive coyotes in both kennels and pens were similar to those observed in the wild, but coyotes in captivity exhibited significantly more stereotypic behavior. Intermittently providing a bone generally lowered resting and increased foraging behaviors but did not significantly reduce stereotypic behavior or alter corticosteroid levels. Thus, coyote behavior in captivity can be similar to that exhibited in the wild; in addition, although enrichment can affect proportions of elicited behaviors, abnormal behaviors and corticosteroid levels may require more than a simple form of environmental enrichment for their reduction.

Eighty multiparous Camborough hybrid female pigs (sows) and their litters, on average 15 days post partum, were housed in groups of five in multi-accommodation pens. The sows were fed ad libitum on a proprietary diet containing 160 g crude protein per kg from grouping to 30 days post partum, when they were fed to scale twice daily in individual feeders until weaning at 42 days post partum. One of four Large White male pigs (boars) was introduced to each group on the day following grouping, each boar being run with four groups.Oestrus occurred in 62 sows, on average 10-2 ± 3-3 days after grouping. The differences between groups in the interval from grouping and boar introduction to the onset of oestrus were statistically significant (P < 0-01). Neither the incidence nor the timing of oestrus could be related to the identity of the boar.Regression analysis revealed relationships between a number of independent variables and the incidence and timing of lactational oestrus. Sows which gained more live weight from farrowing to weaning and whose litters consumed more creep food were more likely to show lactational oestrus. Sows were slower to show lactational oestrus when they gained little weight from farrowing to weaning, had lower live weights at weaning and gained less weight from the previous weaning, despite eating comparatively more food during grouping. The sows which took longer to show lactational oestrus also had heavier piglets at grouping and more piglets in their litters at weaning. The difficulties arising in the interpretation of these results are discussed.

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