The role of zoos in conservation education and the management, propagation, and reintroduction of endangered species provides many opportunities for the application of behavior-analytic techniques.Studies of captive animals are often concerned with functional relationships between environment and behavior-the forte of applied behavior analysis.In the daily management of their charges, animal caretakers regularly apply behavioral techniques, induding shaping, use of discriminative stimuli, and varied schedules of reinforcement. However, zoo professionals have not adequately analyzed the behavioral contingencies involved in their management procedures or the consequences of the absence of natural contingencies (Forthman-Quick, 1984;Markowitz, 1982). This commentary outlines the major management tasks faced by zoo professionals as well as current and potential influences of applied behavior analysis. CURRENT APPLICATIONS Promotion of Species-Typical BehaviorA primary management goal of zoos is to promote species-typical behavior patterns and to discourage exhibition of behaviors that are apparent We thank M. J. Marr, moderator of the symposium at the 1991 annual conference of the Association for Behavior Analysis for which this paper was developed. We also thank
Prior research has shown that the use of apes, specifically chimpanzees, as performers in the media negatively impacts public attitudes of their conservation status and desirability as a pet, yet it is unclear whether these findings generalize to other non-human primates (specifically non-ape species). We evaluated the impact of viewing an image of a monkey or prosimian in an anthropomorphic or naturalistic setting, either in contact with or in the absence of a human. Viewing the primate in an anthropomorphic setting while in contact with a person significantly increased their desirability as a pet, which also correlated with increased likelihood of believing the animal was not endangered. The majority of viewers felt that the primates in all tested images were “nervous.” When shown in contact with a human, viewers felt they were “sad” and “scared”, while also being less “funny.” Our findings highlight the potential broader implications of the use of non-human primate performers by the entertainment industry.
In the past few decades there have been increased investigations into the effects of captive environments on behavior. Simultaneously, zoological gardens have undergone a revolution in philosophy and design, resulting in a proliferation of "naturalistic" habitats. Complex environments such as these have been found to affect the behavior of captive animals favorably, including increasing reproductive and rearing success, encouraging the expression of species-typical behavior patterns, and decreasing abnonnal behaviors. In June 1988, Zoo Atlanta completed four naturalistic habitats for western lowland gorillas (Gorilla gorilla gorilla}. These new habitats afforded a unique opportunity to study the adaptation of lowland gorillas to novel, naturalistic habitats. During the first year of habitation, a total of 451 hours of data were collected on 11 gorillas housed in three harem groups. Focal animal sampling with a behavioral change scoring system was used to obtain information on behavior, substrate, environmental components utilized, and location in sun or shade. Instantaneous scans at 15 minute intervals provided information on location and behavior of all individuals. Adaptation to the environments was assessed by using the indices of time spent manipulating objects across the course of the study, the percent of the habitats utilized, and the dispersal of individual animals over the habitats. Trends in these behaviors indicated that exploration of the environments significantly decreased, but that this decline in exploration took over six months to occur. Several interpretations of these findings are presented including the unfamiliarity of these naturalistic habitats to these subjects.
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