a b s t r a c tThe zoo visitor effect is the change in animal behaviour and physiology in response to the presence of a viewing public. It is thought to result from, amongst other things, visitor generated sound (i.e., noise), but this hypothesis has never been explicitly tested. We tested this hypothesis through observations on the behaviour and enclosure use of 12 mammal species held in 12 separate enclosures at the Belo Horizonte Zoo when exposed to different sound pressure levels (i.e., noise) from the visiting public. Noise pollution levels were significantly higher with the public present and increased with increasing audience size. Species that are more popular suffered greater noise pollution from the zoo visitors. No overall effects on behaviour were found in relation to noise levels, however, analysis of behaviour at the individual level found some significant differences. Notably, half of the individuals increased their vigilance behaviour with increasing sound levels and approximately onethird of individuals increased their movements. These results show that zoo visitors have a negative welfare impact on individual zoo-housed mammals, especially groups of noisy visitors where levels were recorded outside of the recommended limits for human wellbeing (>70 dB(A)). Thus, zoos need to address this issue, probably, through a combination of visitor education campaigns and acoustic modification to enclosures.

In this study, we investigated what problems urban marmosets (Callithrix penicillata) face in a city environment through the analysis of responses to callouts (N= 348) made by the environmental police of Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil, in the period from 2002 to 2007. Our objective was to characterise the problems faced by the marmosets and human city dwellers. The environmental police responded to two types of callouts:(1) solicitation whereby a person called them to report a problem (N=218); and (2) the report of a hurt or injured animal (N=127). On average, one callout per week was made in relation to urban marmosets. We found no time of year effects in relation to callouts, or any effect of gender or age of the person making the callout (P>0.05). Furthermore, we found no environmental (e.g. percentage of "green area") or socioeconomical variables (e.g. salary levels) of the city's administrative regions associated with callouts (P>0.05). The majority of callouts resulted in the attempt to capture marmosets (N=345), and usually, only one animal was captured (N=309). Many of these animals were released into city forest fragments (N=146). Some sick animals were sent to veterinary clinics (N=25) whereas others or confiscated animals were sent to the government's wildlife processing centre (N=143). From this data, we were able to make a series of recommendation about how the management of urban marmosets could be improved.

To investigate the science of animal welfare for zoo and wild animals in the period from 1966 to 2007, we conducted a bibliometric analysis of abstracts downloaded from The Web of Science((c)) database using the keyword combination "Animal welfare, Zoo* and wild" in the topic field. In total we downloaded 1,125 abstracts, which were classified into the following categories: year of publication; environment of the study (e.g., zoo) or theoretical; area of knowledge (e.g., conservation in situ); number of experimental animals used; species; addresses of authors; taxonomic classification; publication language; journal name; number of citations received. Since 1990, there has been a rapid increase in the number of articles published in this area of animal welfare. One worrying result was that published articles were predominately of a theoretical nature (58.65%, N=563). Most of the articles were published by authors either in Europe (47.43%, N=480) or North America (37.65%, N=381) and written in English (87.71%, N=971). The majority of experimental studies were conducted with mammals (75.92%, N=391), and had small sample sizes (N=7 for zoo-based studies). In terms of impact factor (IF), the journals in this study had a median factor equivalent to that for the area of biological sciences (median IF=1.013). Little knowledge cross-over from farm animal welfare was found (only four articles) in this study. In conclusion, zoo and wild animal welfare as a science may benefit from a greater interaction with farm animal welfare.

Anthropogenic noise is becoming more prevalent in the world and has been shown to affect many animal species, including birds. The impact of such noise was measured in Neotropical urban parks to assess how the noise affects avifauna diversity and species richness. We sampled bird species, and concurrently measured sound pressure (noise) levels (Leq, equivalent noise levels) in eight urban green areas or parks located in a large city (Belo Horizonte) in south‐eastern Brazil over a 1‐year period. The diversity of sampled points was measured by means of total species richness, Fisher's alpha and Shannon–Wiener diversity indices. Noise levels within all parks were greater than those in natural areas. We found that an increase in noise levels and the area of open habitats surrounding sampling points were negatively related to species richness. Social factors reflecting increased urbanization, such as higher incomes, were also negatively correlated with bird species richness. However, noise was the factor that explained most of the variance. These results suggest that anthropogenic noise can have a significant negative impact on the conservation value of urban parks for bird species.

Context. Primates are one of the most charismatic and widely studied vertebrate groups. However, the study of new world primates in green patches within urban areas has been neglected. Such primates have been viewed as a source of human-animal conflict; however, their ecological importance to urban ecosystems and their role in human well being is poorly understood.Aims. To increase understanding of both ecological and socioeconomical factors affecting the distribution, density and group sizes of urban marmosets in a large Brazilian city (Belo Horizonte).Methods. A map of vegetation cover and land use was produced and employed to investigate the distribution of marmosets. An online questionnaire was extensively publicised, which permitted the public to report the occurrence or not of marmosets near their residences. For sites with low salary levels and low internet availability, face-to-face interviews were conducted. Additionally, field surveys were conducted in 120 green areas identified by spatial analysis as potential areas of occurrence. The human population density, salary levels and green areas were posteriorly correlated with marmoset distribution.Key results. Despite the urbanisation and high human population density, green fragments within the city still housed marmoset groups. However, the presence of green areas did not always indicate primate presence. Group presence was significantly related to the size of parks or green areas and negatively related to built-up areas, and human density. Salary levels were related to more forested streets and possibly tolerance. Marmosets were classified as urban utilisers.Conclusions. The human-wildlife conflict with marmoset species was relatively low, owing to marmoset avoidance of built-up areas. The interaction of marmoset species and city dwellers was mainly limited to borders of forest fragments and inside city parks, and appeared to be human motivated.Implications. This study showed the importance of public involvement in wildlife studies in urban environments; clarifying the interaction between city dwellers and wild species is essential to mitigate negative interactions.

For professionals caring for humans or non-human animals, many joys are to be found in working towards what an individual believes to be their calling, especially as they contribute to purposeful, meaningful work consistent with and intrinsic to their own values and beliefs. However, there can be downfalls. Empathic strain, conflict between co-workers, dissatisfaction with upper management, lack of opportunities to make positive changes, limited or no access to level and experience-appropriate professional development, and other stressors are all risks carried by organisations concerned with animal welfare. In the present study, a survey on job satisfaction and workplace stressors was completed by 311 zoo and aquarium professionals working in a range of roles from junior animal care staff to curator. Respondent profiles were created using Multiple Correspondence Analysis (MCA) and four distinct clusters were identified through Hierarchical Clustering on Principal Components (HCPC), highlighting common themes in different levels of experience and in job roles regarding stressors, satisfaction, and feelings about their work and workplaces. Overall, many zoo professionals were concerned with lacking the ability to feel empowered to do their best for animal welfare, and they described a link between the staff welfare and their perceptions of the welfare of the animals they cared for. Through identifying and understanding where organisations can better support their staff it is possible to target and reduce the number of common stressors faced by zoo professionals, leading to increased staff retention, higher job satisfaction, and an improved ability to perform at their best for animal welfare.

New World primates feature a complex colour vision system. Most species have polymorphic colour vision where males have a dichromatic colour perception and females can be either dichromatic or trichromatic. The adaptive value of high allelic diversity of opsins, a light sensitive protein, found in primates’ eyes remains unknown. Studies revealing the allelic diversity are important as they shed light on our understanding of the adaptive value of differences in the colouration of species and their ecologies. Here we investigate the allelic types found in Pitheciidae, an understudied New World primate family, revealing the diversity of medium/long wavelength sensitive opsins both in cryptic and conspicuous species of this primate family. We found five alleles in Cacajao, six in Callicebinae (i.e. Plecturocebus, Cheracebus, and Callicebus), four in Chiropotes, and three in Pithecia, some of them reported for the first time. Both cryptic and conspicuous species in this group presented high allelic diversity.

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