The effects of auditory enrichment on gorillas

Abstract

Several studies have demonstrated that auditory enrichment can reduce stereotypic behaviors in captive animals. The purpose of this study was to determine the relative effectiveness of three different types of auditory enrichment-naturalistic sounds, classical music, and rock music-in reducing stereotypic behavior displayed by Western lowland gorillas (Gorilla gorilla gorilla). Three gorillas (one adult male, two adult females) were observed at the Buffalo Zoo for a total of 24 hr per music trial. A control observation period, during which no sounds were presented, was also included. Each music trial consisted of a total of three weeks with a 1-week control period in between each music type. The results reveal a decrease in stereotypic behaviors from the control period to naturalistic sounds. The naturalistic sounds also affected patterns of several other behaviors including locomotion. In contrast, stereotypy increased in the presence of classical and rock music. These results suggest that auditory enrichment, which is not commonly used in zoos in a systematic way, can be easily utilized by keepers to help decrease stereotypic behavior, but the nature of the stimulus, as well as the differential responses of individual animals, need to be considered.

Habituation to Auditory Stimuli by Captive African Elephants (Loxodonta africana)

“…Habituation to enrichment items has been observed in many captive animals, such as pigs (Sus spp. ), Western lowland gorillas (Gorilla gorilla gorilla), sloth bears (Melursus ursinus), and American black (Ursus americanus) and brown (Ursus arctos) bears [Anderson et al, 2010;Carlstead et al, 1991;Robbins and Margulis, 2014;Trickett et al, 2009]. Since the four elephants in the present study quickly habituated to the two auditory stimuli provided, it is plausible that captive elephants, in general, will habituate to auditory enrichment.…”

Is music enriching for group-housed captive chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes)?

“…However, the constituent behaviours that made up their category of abnormal behaviours did not include regurgitation and reingestion as in our study. By contrast, Robbins and Margulis [16] reported that both classical and rock music tended to increase the prevalence of regurgitation and reingestion in their three gorillas, as well as hair plucking and stereotypical locomotion. It is likely that the sampling technique used in our study was not optimal for detecting differences in abnormal behaviours, which can happen very quickly and be quite subtle.…”

“…Our results suggest that the chimpanzees were not avoiding the music but equally did not seek it out. If it had been possible to play music for several hours a day, as in other zoo-based auditory enrichment studies [15, 16], there would have been a greater chance of an individual being exposed to the music for longer and more chronic exposure music, may then have had a greater effect on behaviour.…”

“…To date, music as enrichment has been studied with gorillas ( Gorilla gorilla gorilla ) [15, 16], orangutans [14] and gibbons ( Hylobates moloch )[17] in zoos but chimpanzees have only been studied in a laboratory setting [11, 12]. …”

Влияние Ольфакторного Обогащения На Благополучие Крупных Кошачьих В Неволе

“…На сегодняшний день выделяют обогащение среды, связанное с особенностями жизнедеятельности вида, также физическое, социальное, пищевое и сенсорное обогащение среды (Young, 2003). Сенсорная стимуляция, которая обычно использует звуковые, запаховые и визуальные методы обогащения, включает в себя предоставление стимулов, направленных на активацию одного или более органов чувств, приобретает все большее внимание в отношении его значения для улучшения благополучия животных в неволе (Clark, King, 2008;Ellis, Wells, 2008;Wells, 2009;Kogan et al, 2012;Ogura, 2012;Robbins, Margulis, 2014;Myles, Montrose, 2015). Ольфакторная стумуляция чаще рассматривается как метод обогащения среды для животных в неволе.…”