Page 66 - Zoo Animal Learning and Training

38 3 The Ultimate Benefits of Learning

VetBooks.ir of 9–16 young and their foster parents (birds the provision learning opportunities and
training techniques, highlights the impor-
were brood reared artificially until three
weeks and then fostered to an adult pair).
tunities within zoo environments (see
Nineteen or twenty coveys were released on tance of providing adequate learning oppor-
each of the four study sites when birds were Chapter 5). Whether the zoo housed animals
four/five months old. The authors radio are to be used for reintroduction attempts
tagged 4/5 random birds from each covey themselves or not, survival behaviours
resulting in 101 tagged birds in 2006 and 92 and ensuring animals are developing a full
tagged birds in 2007. Behavioural observa- behavioural repertoire is beneficial (Reading
tions of tagged birds were conducted after et al. 2013).
release, and mortality rates were also
recorded. The released partridges showed 3.3.2 Habitat Use
poor vigilance behaviour compared to their
wild counterparts; the mean percentage of Within our review making appropriate use of
individuals’ activity budget included 3.8– the habitat was the next most important fac-
5.4% of vigilance behaviour (2006–2007). tor in determining the success or failure of
Whereas comparable results from a wild reintroduction attempts; as evidenced by it
study, across 20 sites in lowland UK farm- appearing in 20/116 studies within this
land, observed wild birds spending 43% of review. With the studies reviewed, consider-
their time in vigilance behaviour. Wild par- ation of habitat use ranged from the ability to
tridge also show a strong negative correlation establish appropriate territories (Dunston
between vigilance and group size, a relation- et al. 2017) to dispersal patterns throughout
ship not seen in released animals. These stud- the habitat (Richardson and Ewen 2016).
ies demonstrate that the captive bred birds Incorrect habitat use may also interact, and
were not behaving adaptively to wild condi- effect the successful display of other behav-
tions, insofar as their performance of vigi- iours such as antipredator strategies. For
lance behaviour was too low and so they were example captive ratsnakes (Pantherophis
at risk of predation (Rantanen et al. 2010). obsoletus) held in captivity were less likely to
Many antipredator behaviours that are survive reintroduction compared to translo-
considered ‘lost’ in captivity can be trained cated ratsnakes. This difference was thought
pre‐release, i.e. through operant condition- to stem from the fact that captive individuals
ing as discussed in Chapter 12; in brief, pair- showed reduced concealment behaviour
ing a stimulus associated with a predator (e.g. which made them visible to predators.
visual, olfactory, auditory cues) with a stimu- Interestingly this study also showed a nega-
lus perceived to be aversive (e.g. loud noise), tive relationship between time spent in cap-
has been used to train numerous different tivity and survival, indicating that short
species to successfully avoid and or respond periods of time spent in captivity may have
appropriately to predators. Allowing poten- less of an effect on the display of these sur-
tial reintroduction candidates to experience vival behaviours in this species (DeGregorio
a predator can confer behavioural benefits. et al. 2017). The importance of habitat related
For example in the case of burrowing bet- behaviour on the success of reintroduction
tongs (Bettongia lesueur), a small marsupial, attempts becomes even clearer when explor-
captive individuals raised in conditions ing hard vs soft release techniques. Soft
where they were exposed to feral cats on a release, generally allows the animal to grow
regular basis displayed greater flight distance accustomed to the habitat, usually whilst it is
behaviour post‐release than cat‐naive indi- still being provisioned and/or offered protec-
viduals (West et al. 2018). tion from predators whilst hard release does
That these survival behaviours, which are not offer any buffer to the reintroduced ani-
seemingly ‘lost’, can be stimulated through mals (e.g. de Milliano et al. 2016).