Factors affecting wounding aggression in a colony of captive chimpanzees (<i>Pan troglodytes</i>)

Williams, Robert C.; Nash, Leanne T.; Scarry, Clara J; Videan, Elaine N.; Fritz, Jo

doi:10.1002/zoo.20263

Cited by 13 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 27 publications

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“…One plausible explanation is that the chimpanzees in the laboratory groups are more sensitive to human presence. Neither laboratory study [Lambeth et al, ; Williams et al, ] says what numbers of human visitors their chimpanzees are exposed to, but they are not likely to be anywhere near the daily numbers faced by the Taronga and Chester animals. There is some evidence that animals in zoos may habituate to the large numbers of people they come into contact with [Hosey, ], in which case what appears to be an indifference to human crowds (at least as measured by numbers of woundings) may represent habituation to chronic human presence.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…We collected data for two chimpanzee groups at two different zoos, Taronga Zoo in Sydney, Australia, and Chester Zoo in the United Kingdom; and a ring‐tailed lemur group at South Lakes Wild Animal Park, also in the United Kingdom. These two species were chosen because chimpanzees were the subjects of the original reports by Lambeth et al [] and Williams et al [], and ring‐tailed lemurs are commonly‐held primates in zoos for which we would be able to obtain sufficient data for analysis. Ring‐tailed lemurs at Chester Zoo were considered unsuitable for this study as they are housed on an island, with limited public visibility; and Taronga lemurs were too few in number to provide a suitable database.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…By this we mean that we calculated a mean for all Mondays, another mean for all Tuesdays, and so on for the entire period for which we had gate numbers. We used gate numbers rather than number of people at the enclosure because these are historical data for which enclosure visitor numbers do not exist, but also because the papers which inspired this study [Lambeth et al, ; Williams et al, ] used people in the facility as a measure of anthropogenic pressure, rather than number of people in actual contact with the animals. Furthermore, in both Chester and Taronga, the chimpanzee enclosures are in prominent, well‐visited positions, while the lemurs at South Lakes are free‐range, so we are confident that gate numbers are a valid measure of visitor pressure.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…There is limited evidence to suggest that crowds of zoo visitors can increase intra‐group aggression in chimpanzees in zoos [Perret et al, ], but it should be noted that anthropogenic influences have been discounted as a cause of increased attacks among wild‐living chimpanzees [Wilson et al, ]. However, studies in two different laboratories have shown that wounding rates among chimpanzees are higher during the working week than on weekends [Lambeth et al, ; Williams et al, ], and have attributed that finding to the presence of more people during the working week, who are probably carrying out different procedures, such as testing, than those present on weekends. Laboratories and zoos are quite different [Hosey, ], and weekday/weekend differences in staff and procedures are less likely to be important in zoos.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Is wounding aggression in zoo-housed chimpanzees and ring-tailed lemurs related to zoo visitor numbers?

et al. 2016

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23Chimpanzees in laboratory colonies experience more wounds on week days than on weekends, which 24 has been attributed to the increased number of people present during the week; thus the presence of 25 more people was interpreted as stressful. If this were also true for primates in zoos, where high 26 human presence is a regular feature, this would clearly be of concern. Here we examine wounding 27 rates in two primate species (chimpanzees Pan troglodytes and ring-tailed lemurs Lemur catta) at 28 three different zoos, to determine whether they correlate with mean number of visitors to the zoo. 29Wounding data were obtained from zoo electronic record keeping system (ZIMS™). The pattern of 30 wounds did not correlate with mean gate numbers for those days for either species in any group. We 31 conclude that there is no evidence that high visitor numbers result in increased woundings in these 32 two species when housed in zoos. 33Keywords: aggression, captivity, visitor effect, animal welfare.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Is wounding aggression in zoo-housed chimpanzees and ring-tailed lemurs related to zoo visitor numbers?

et al. 2016

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“…This is fortuitous because chimpanzee aggression is a commonly reported problem in zoos [e.g. Baker et al, 2000;de Waal, 1986;Williams et al, 2010], and one of the overbearing challenges is to reduce aggression while providing adequate and natural social opportunities for the group as a whole [Bloomsmith & Baker, 2001;Brent et al, 1997;Williams et al, 2010].…”

Section: Sna As a Management Tool For The Edinburgh Zoo Chimpanzee Comentioning

confidence: 99%

Space to choose: network analysis of social preferences in a captive chimpanzee community, and implications for management

Clark

2010

American J Primatol

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Social network analysis (SNA) is rapidly gaining popularity in primatology, but its application to the management of zoo-housed primates has been largely overlooked. Here I use SNA techniques to explore the social structure of chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) housed in the new "Budongo Trail" exhibit at Edinburgh Zoo, UK. Given that individuals have extensive space (2332 m(2)), and access to several interconnected exhibit sections, I test the hypothesis that individuals are able to choose to interact with specific social partners. Spatial association and social interaction data were recorded from 400 focal watches on 11 individuals, and association, affiliative, and agonistic networks were constructed. Matrix correlations showed that individuals who spent time in close proximity were likely to affiliate with one another, but spatial association did not predict the frequency of agonistic encounters. Cluster analysis revealed significantly distinct sub-groups in the affiliative network (but not association or agonistic networks) in line with maternal kinship. Overall my findings support the hypothesis that the Budongo Trail exhibit facilitates the expression of social preferences, and suggests that SNA can be a useful tool to study zoo primates when proximity between individuals is not forced (i.e. in large, modern exhibits). Now that I have validated a set of SNA methods for this community, they can be used to trace changes in social dynamics over a longer time period, and ultimately assist zoo staff in their management decisions.

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Zoo‐housed mammals do not avoid giving birth on weekends

et al. 2020

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There is evidence that zoo visitor presence can influence the behaviour and, in some cases, adrenal response of zoo animals, and can sometimes compromise animal welfare. In some laboratory studies, significantly more primate births have been reported on weekends, when fewer people are working there, compared with weekdays when staffing levels are at their highest. Here, we investigate whether there is evidence of a “weekend effect” on births in zoo animals as a result of visitor numbers. Unlike laboratories, zoos are typically busier with visitors on weekends than on weekdays, although staffing levels remain fairly consistent across days of the week. If zoo animal parturition is sensitive to human presence, then fewer births would be expected on weekends compared with weekdays. We tested this using birth data and visitor numbers on the entrance gate from zoo records across 16 species representing artiodactyls, perissodactyls, carnivores and primates at four British zoos, to see whether there is an association between mean daily birth rates and average visitor numbers. We predict that, if there is a visitor effect, daily births should be lower on weekends than weekdays and should correlate with mean daily visitor numbers. Results showed that births for all 16 species were randomly distributed through the week, and there was no significant decline in births on weekends. We conclude that the “weekend effect”, if such a thing exists, does not appear to be a feature of zoo births, suggesting that elevated weekend visitor numbers are not sufficiently stressful to trigger delayed parturition.

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Factors affecting wounding aggression in a colony of captive chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes)

Cited by 13 publications

References 27 publications

Is wounding aggression in zoo-housed chimpanzees and ring-tailed lemurs related to zoo visitor numbers?

Is wounding aggression in zoo-housed chimpanzees and ring-tailed lemurs related to zoo visitor numbers?

Space to choose: network analysis of social preferences in a captive chimpanzee community, and implications for management

Zoo‐housed mammals do not avoid giving birth on weekends

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