Comparative Personality Traits Assessment of Three Species of Communally Housed Captive Penguins

Pastorino, Giovanni Quintavalle; Preziosi, Richard F.; Faustini, M.; Curone, Giulio; Albertini, M.; Nicoll, Dawn; Moffat, Lorna; Pizzi, Romain; Mazzola, Silvia

doi:10.3390/ani9060376

Cited by 9 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 41 publications

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“…In fact, most behaviors we observed did not show variation along these dimensions. King penguins have previously been reported by animal keepers to show no sex-based differences in personality, unlike other penguin species [52].…”

Section: Changes In Social Dynamicsmentioning

confidence: 90%

The Benefits of Increased Space and Habitat Complexity for the Welfare of Zoo-Housed King Penguins (Aptenodytes patagonicus)

Fuller,

Jones,

Gartland

et al. 2023

Animals

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Zoos and aquariums accredited by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums embrace animal welfare as a foundational principle of habitat design. Modern habitats are designed to provide animals with choices and agency over their environment, and to encourage species-appropriate behavior and space use. In 2016, the Detroit Zoological Society opened the Polk Penguin Conservation Center, a 3065.80 m2 facility that features a naturalistic design. The building was designed to optimize animal welfare by incorporating various substrates, nesting sites, and a 1234 kL pool with elements of underwater complexity. The facility houses a mixed-species group of penguins that were previously housed in a smaller habitat that opened in 1968. Between 2015 and 2022, we opportunistically monitored the behavior of ten king penguins (Aptenodytes patagonicus) as they moved back and forth between the two buildings while additional modifications were made to the new habitat. We collected 695 h of behavioral observations and 10,416 h of data from flipper-mounted time–depth recorders. We found that the king penguins spent less time engaged in aggression and more time engaged in swimming and positive social behaviors in the redesigned space. They also spent less time in proximity to other species of penguins and more time alone. These behavioral trends suggest that increased space and environmental complexity had positive welfare benefits for these penguins.

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Section: Changes In Social Dynamicsmentioning

confidence: 90%

The Benefits of Increased Space and Habitat Complexity for the Welfare of Zoo-Housed King Penguins (Aptenodytes patagonicus)

Fuller,

Jones,

Gartland

et al. 2023

Animals

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show abstract

“…Two methods for assessing personality in animals have been described in the literature in past years [1,2,9,12]. One uses animal observations, including the frequency, duration, or intensity of a variety of behaviours that characterise the animals' personality [13]; the second, which is the most commonly used for evaluating personality in zoo animals [9,[14][15][16][17], assesses personality traits with observer ratings. Raters (or observers) are expected to have sufficient experience with each individual so that their overall impression of each animal reflects the animal's personality fairly [2].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Caretaker Score Reliability for Personality Assessment of Bottlenose Dolphin (Tursiops truncatus)

Salas

Fernández‐Fontelo

Martínez‐Nevado³

et al. 2021

Animals

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The evaluation of zoo animals’ personalities can likely lead to a range of benefits, including improving breeding success, creating stable social groups, and designing and developing environmental enrichment programmes. The goal of this study was to use caretakers scores to evaluate personality in bottlenose dolphins and to assess the reliability of scores within each rater and among raters from each centre. To this end, 24 caretakers from 3 countries (Spain, France, and Argentina), including a total of 5 dolphinariums and 6 groups of dolphins, used a questionnaire based on the Five-Factor Model of Personality to score bottlenose dolphins on a number of personality traits in three different contexts. Each caretaker evaluated the animals under their care twice, ensuring that raters did not share thoughts nor impressions with other raters. Our findings showed a good degree of agreement between each rater’s scores and a fair degree of agreement among scores of raters from the same centre. We also identified which raters and centres had significant mean score differences and detected that 4 out of 24 raters from two different centres showed such differences systematically. The evaluation of raters’ reliability and the identification of particular inconsistent raters and centres is critical to make more appropriate and realistic management decisions that, in turn, directly impact animals’ welfare.

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The effects of owner and domestic cat (Felis catus) demographics on cat personality traits

Leech

Preziosi

Stoycheva

et al. 2022

Applied Animal Behaviour Science

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Comparative Personality Traits Assessment of Three Species of Communally Housed Captive Penguins

Cited by 9 publications

References 41 publications

The Benefits of Increased Space and Habitat Complexity for the Welfare of Zoo-Housed King Penguins (Aptenodytes patagonicus)

The Benefits of Increased Space and Habitat Complexity for the Welfare of Zoo-Housed King Penguins (Aptenodytes patagonicus)

Caretaker Score Reliability for Personality Assessment of Bottlenose Dolphin (Tursiops truncatus)

The effects of owner and domestic cat (Felis catus) demographics on cat personality traits

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