Dear Bergites,
Reminder - our first "proper" meeting is our external speaker, Mark Jones from Howlett's. Anyone who would like to join us for supper after the talk - please RSVP to P.Lee!
And we are looking for FOUR volunteers for speakers / discussion leaders on the following dates:
17th Oct, 31st Oct, 1st Nov, 21st Nov
PLEASE!!!!
Title: Hanging about at enclosures: Enrichment to prolong foraging AND visitor stay time!
Abstract:
Browse hangers have been in use at Howletts Wild Animal Park in Kent for the last 18 months, with both gibbons and langurs. These devices employ a simple pulley system on the outside of the enclosure, designed to raise large pieces of browse or a mesh feeder containing smaller food items to an appropriate height, encouraging arboreal feeding. In addition, positioning them on the outside of the enclosure should prolong foraging time thus aiming to replicate the 70% of their day spent engaging in this behaviour in the wild. The final goal to the positioning of this device is that it brings the animals to the front of the enclosure in full public view increasing the visitor experience.
Anecdotally, these devices have achieved these goals, as evidenced by the food still being consumed after an hour or more of using the mesh boxes, and for up to 6hrs when holding browse. Talk attendance at the gibbons was also seen to increase from an average of 3.7 people to 25.9 people when the device was in use. In order to keep enrichment programmes effective and constantly developing however, it is important to assess how successful devices have been in order to maximise long-term use. As time for both keepers and educators is extremely limited, direct data collection was not possible. One suggestion to mediate this problem was the use of time-lapse cameras as an alternative method of collecting a large amount of data, which is quick and easy to analyse.
This study was therefore assessed the use of one of the hangers currently mounted on an enclosure housing a family group of 2.2 Javan gibbons (Hylobates moloch,) and the effect this has on visitor numbers at the enclosure. Two time-lapse cameras were used, with one pointing at the enclosure to record at 30sec intervals the presence and number of gibbons. The second camera was pointed at the public fence to record visitor numbers at the same 30sec interval. Statistical analysis compared the day the mesh box hanger was in use to the day before, in order to keep temperature and other variables as constant as possible. This presentation will report the results of this study and discuss the use of this type of data collection method for future projects.
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