|
|
|
Title: Effect of food presentation, preparation and type on the species typical foraging behaviours of captive orangutans.
Author: Sarah Fowkes
Establishment: Oxford Brookes
Summary: This study aimed to investigate the effects of food type, presentation and preparation methods on the rates of species typical foraging behaviours of captive orangutans. In total, 23 captive orangutans were studied at 5 different zoos. The specific aims of the current study were to:• Identify if species-typical food processing, manipulation and feeding tool use behaviours are displayed by captive populations of orangutans housed in UK zoos, • Investigate the effect of food preparation, and presentation techniques and food items universally used by UK based zoos on captive orangutans' species-typical foraging behaviours, • Acknowledge the effect of individual differences on the foraging behaviours of captive orangutans, • Identify any discrepancy in the rate of foraging behaviours between wild and captive orangutan populations, • Resolve any discrepancies between the species-typical foraging behaviours of captive versus wild orangutan populations.
Complete article:
Five zoos were studied: Colchester, Dudley, Twycross, Blackpool and Jersey. Initially pilot studies were carried out so that the researcher could familiarize herself with the ethogram. Following this, 56 one hour sessions of behavioural data were collected at each zoo, with a grand total of 280 one hour sessions for all populations combined. Focal continuous sampling was used over 10 minutes samples to record the rate of species typical foraging behaviours, furthermore the duration of foraging and feeding behaviour tool use behaviours were also recorded. All data was collected in accordance with the feeding schedules of the participating zoos.
The results of this study suggest that food presentation, preparation and food item significantly affect the rate of species-typical foraging behaviours in captive orangutans. What is more, individual differences in age and sex of subject affect the rate of foraging behaviours. Concealing food within substrates, and food processing can be increased by placing the food on the roof of enclosures. Both of these methods can be achieved easily and cheaply by concealing food within food sacks, or honey logs and placing food on wire mesh sky lights or ceiling of enclosures. It is important to consider individual differences when introducing food presentation methods also. Results suggest males employ greater strength, dominance and reduced mouth processing in comparison to females, leading to increased simple and object-substrate manipulations. Therefore, particular attention should be paid to increasing the rates of these behaviours in females also.
In conclusion, if zoos wish to be deemed as conservation centres then they should adopt food presentation and preparation techniques and captive diets that results in viable orangutan populations, who display foraging behaviours similar to wild orangutans. Roof and concealed feeds promoted a significantly higher mean rate of probing and inserting tool use, tool manufacture, pulling and object manipulations than other food presentation methods.
|
|
|
|
