Making a Tiger’s Day: Free-Operant Assessment and Environmental Enrichment to Improve the Daily Lives of Captive Bengal Tigers (Panthera tigris tigris)

Abstract

There are more captive tigers in the United States than there are wild tigers in the entire world. Many animals under human care engage in problem behaviors such as excessive grooming and aggression, although the origin of these behaviors is typically unknown. Environmental enrichment may mitigate these issues in captive animals of all kinds. In order to individualize enrichment experiences, the current study used a free-operant assessment procedure to establish a menu of most preferred play items and scents among 7 Bengal tigers (Panthera tigris tigris) housed at a sanctuary in southwest Missouri. Each tiger was tested 3 times with scents (cinnamon and Calvin Klein Obsession perfume) and play items (boxes, balls, leaves, and pumpkins). The importance of rigorous assessment of presumed reinforcers among captive wild animals, as well as the difficulty of effectively assessing tigers while ensuring the safety of both the participants and researchers, is discussed.

Animal Training, Environmental Enrichment, and Animal Welfare: A History of Behavior Analysis in Zoos

“…For example, functional analysis protocols have been used to assess and treat problem behaviors in animals [87][88][89][90][91][92][93][94][95][96], and this function-based approach that emphasizes the identification and modification of existing behavior-environment relationships may help provide a framework that allows animal caregivers both a deeper understanding of behavior and the ability to move beyond the reliance of artificial reinforcers when modifying behavior [61]. In addition, empirical preference assessments have been successfully used in a variety of species [97][98][99][100][101][102][103][104][105][106][107][108][109][110][111] with promise for improving training effectiveness. By using a behavior analytic lens, adapting existing behavioral technologies, and developing new, animal-specific, behavioral protocols and methodologies, behavior analysts could play a considerable role in guiding the next advances in modern zoos.…”

Training as enrichment: A critical review

“…The use of paired-choice preference assessments, where choices of potential rewards are systematically evaluated by presenting all possible pairs to an animal for their selection, were first used in zoos almost two decades ago (Fernandez et al, 2004). Since then, several studies have used similar preference assessments to evaluate their ability to determine potential enrichment activities/items (Clayton & Shrock, 2020;Fernandez & Timberlake, 2005;Fernandez & Timberlake, 2019b;Mehrkam & Dorey, 2014;Woods et al, 2020). In one study, Dorey et al (2015) were able to demonstrate that two of their four subjects, zoo-housed wolves (Canis lupus and Canis lupus arctos), preferred training activities over enrichment items.…”

The Neurobiology of Behavior and Its Applicability for Animal Welfare: A Review

“…As mentioned by Grandin [ 30 ], encouraging the seeking system motivates learning when animals know they will receive a reward. This is frequently applied in sea lions during daily training sessions, in whom anticipatory behavior is considered an indicator of good welfare [ 31 , 32 ]. Another example is promoting a more complex and flexible environment for species such as Asian elephants ( Elephas maximus ).…”