Effects of personality and rearing-history on the welfare of captive Asiatic lions (Panthera leo persica)

Abstract

Background The long-term success of ex-situ conservation programmes depends on species-appropriate husbandry and enrichment practices complemented by an accurate welfare assessment protocol. Zoos and conservation breeding programmes should employ a bottom-up approach to account for intraspecific variations in measures of animal welfare. We studied 35 (14:21) captive Asiatic lions in Sakkarbaug Zoological Garden, Junagadh, India to understand the implications of individual variations on welfare measures. We categorized the subjects based on personality traits (bold or shy), rearing history (wild-rescued or captive-raised), sex, and social-grouping. We explored the association of these categorical variables on welfare indices such as behavioural diversity, latency to approach novel objects, enclosure usage and aberrant repetitive behaviours. Further, we assessed the inter-relationships between different behavioural measures of welfare. Results Our results show that intraspecific variations based on rearing-history and personality traits are significantly associated with the welfare states of captive Asiatic lions. Asiatic lions with bold personality traits (M = 0.50, SD = 0.12, N = 21) and those raised in captivity (M = 0.47, SD = 0.12, N = 16) used enclosure space more homogenously compared to shy (M = 0.71, SD = 0.15, N = 14) and wild-rescued (M = 0.67, SD = 0.15, N = 19) animals. Behaviour diversity was significantly higher in captive-raised (M = 1.26, SD = 0.3, N = 16) and bold (M = 1.23, SD = 0.26, N = 21) subjects compared to wild-rescued (M = 0.83, SD = 0.35, N = 19) and shy (M = 0.73, SD = 0.34, N = 14) individuals. Aberrant repetitive behaviours (stereotypy) were significantly lower in bold (M = 7.01, SD = 4, N = 21) and captive-raised (M = 7.74, SD = 5.3) individuals compared to wild-rescued (M = 13.12, SD = 6.25, N = 19) and shy (M = 16.13, SD = 5.4, N = 16) lions. Sex and social-grouping of subjects did not show significant associations with behavioural welfare indices. Interestingly, behaviour diversity was reliably predicted by the enclosure usage patterns and aberrant repetitive behaviours displayed by subjects. Discussion Our findings underline the importance of individual-centric, behaviour-based, and multi-dimensional welfare assessment approaches in ex-situ conservation programmes. The results suggest that behavioural welfare indices complemented with individual variations can explain inter-individual differences in behavioural welfare measure outcomes of Asiatic lions. These findings also provide zoo managers with a non-invasive tool to reliably assess and improve husbandry practices for Asiatic lions. Understanding the unique welfare requirement of individuals in captivity will be crucial for the survival of the species.

Effects of a combined enrichment intervention on the behavioural and physiological welfare of captive Asiatic lions (Panthera leo persica)

“…We hypothesized that enrichment interventions would lead to significant improvement in behavioural (Goswami et al, 2020)and physiological welfare measures for all test subjects in contrast to the controls. We divided the subjects into control (N = 16) and treatment (N = 19) groups by a blind draw of enclosures for enrichment interventions.…”

“…However, these enclosures offered little in terms of novelty and cognitive enrichment. Our earlier study established low enclosure space utilization, low behaviour diversity, and a high incidence of aberrant repetitive behaviours prevalent in Asiatic lions housed at SZG (Goswami et al, 2020).…”

“…Two observers (viz., first author and field assistant) collected all behaviour data, which necessitated accounting for inter-observer reliability. We created a detailed ethogram of the 155 study subjects from one month of ad-libitum behaviour sampling and compared the behaviour 156 data recorded from the same subject by both observers to ensure consistency (Goswami et al, 2020). We commenced data collection only after inter-observer reliability levels remained consistent across three consecutive sessions (Cronbach's alpha >0.9).…”

“…The survival and proliferation of this species relies on repatriation to insulate the extant population from future stochastic extinction events (Jhala et al, 2019). Although the conservation breeding programme has been successful in maintaining a genetically diverse stock, the welfare status and incumbent management practices for the animals has not received adequate research focus (Pastorino et al, 2017;Goswami et al, 2020).…”

“…Apart from improving welfare, enrichment interventions have been shown to play an important positive role in increasing post-release fitness in several species (Brown et al, 2003;Rabin, 2003;Reading et al, 2013). Earlier study on welfare status of captive Asiatic lions reported that individual variations (personality and rearing history) are associated with differential welfare outcomes in lions housed under similar captive environments (Goswami et al, 2020), necessitating individually tailored husbandry regimen for the animals. This study focuses on identifying the areas for improvement of the current husbandry and management practices for Asiatic lions.…”