The influence of stereotypic behaviour on non-experts’ perception of the mental experiences of zoo-housed animals : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Animal Science at Massey University, Manawatū, New Zealand
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2023
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Massey University
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Modern zoos play a multifaceted role in society, encompassing conservation, education, research, animal welfare enhancement, and entertainment. Zoos prioritise animal welfare, utilising insights from animal science advancements. The affective state orientation, recognising animals' positive and negative mental experiences, is crucial for assessing and improving welfare. The affective state orientation relies on robust human inferences about the mental experiences of animals. Challenges to the social acceptability of zoos persist due to confined spaces leading to zoo housed animals displaying a range of abnormal behaviours. One of zoos' most prolific animal welfare issues is the prevalence of stereotypic behaviour. Animals displaying stereotypic behaviours may be experiencing distress. The perception of distress will influence our moral judgements regarding which animals need intervention or protection. Various terms, like stereotypic behaviour, characterise behaviours observed in zoo-housed animals. Still, more clarity surrounding these terms is needed to infer animal experiences. Non-experts struggle to identify behaviours due to species-specific complexity, affecting the leap from observation to inference. Human perception further complicates this process as non-expert’s perceptions and opinions influence the zoo's social license to operate. Human perception of animals significantly influences attitudes, behaviours, and willingness to affect change. Perception is molded by physical attributes, familiarity, and anthropomorphism, all of which influence animals' perceived cognitive abilities and mind perception. If non experts have negative perceptions of animal behaviour in zoos, this may affect the type or prioritisation of mitigation strategies. This perception could also affect animal welfare as certain animals could be perceived to have negative mental experiences and, therefore, poor welfare. This would reduce zoo's social license to operate, as welfare is something zoos are obligated to uphold. Assessing animal behaviour requires expert frameworks. However, the complexity of these frameworks makes applying species-specific assessments to diverse zoo-housed species nearly impossible. Qualitative Behaviour Assessment (QBA) involves assessors directly recording perceived mental experiences, bridging behaviour observation and inference. Therefore, this methodology represents a potential approach to exploring non-expert perceptions about the mental experiences of zoo-housed animals. An approach similar to the methodology used in QBA formed the basis of this thesis. In Study 1, participants viewed videos, each featuring a different animal displaying a specific behaviour. They responded freely, recording the perceived mental experience of the animal and attributing a valence (positive, neutral, or negative) to each term. In Study 2, a new group of participants watched the same videos. Participants rated the top 10 terms from Study 1 on a 0-10 scale, with zero meaning extremely unlikely to be experiencing the term and ten meaning extremely likely to be experiencing the term. They were then asked if they perceived any behaviours of concern in the video. A definition of stereotypic behaviour 1 was given, and they were then asked if any of the behaviours in the videos they watched met this criterion. There were a total of 220 unique mental experiences recorded by participants in Study 1. The most commonly used term was hunger, followed by happy and bored. Valence was found to be ambiguous in most cases, with only two terms within the top 20 showing 100% consistency in response. In Study 2, principal component analysis (PCA) reduced the ten items (terms) into positive and negative components. Positively valenced terms from Study 1 loaded on the positive component in Study 2 and vice versa for the negative component. The polar bear video received the most negative rating, while the otter video was the most positive. The non-stereotypic tiger, zebra, and frog videos were classified as being more negative than the shark and giraffe videos, which were stereotypic. The polar bear video was classified as the most concerning and had the highest percentage of participants who watched it correctly, identifying it as a stereotypic behaviour. The otter, bee, and parrot videos had no concern but were identified as being a stereotypic behaviour by 29%, 12%, and 6% of participants, respectively. The results show that non-experts are willing to attribute mental experiences to various zoo-housed animals. Non-expert's level of concern and ability to identify concern is influenced by various aspects of human perception. Participants had varying thresholds of concern towards the level of repetition and interpretation of the context of the behaviour. These varied responses emphasised the ambiguity of the stereotypic behaviour definition. This research methodology has the potential to advance existing theories by providing an extensive set of mental experiences and valences that can be used as a starting point for understanding non-experts' perceptions of animal behaviour. It promotes a more accurate and comprehensive approach to studying animal behaviour from a non-expert perspective, bridging the gap between expert and public perceptions. Zoos can involve visitors' perceptions, enhancing support and biodiversity preservation, which increases their social license to operate.