Abstract：
Captive large felines are prone to abnormal repetitive behaviors like pacing, which are associated with welfare issues. Visual contact without the opportunity to engage in appropriate behavior is known to increase pacing. To better understand the relationship between pacing and conspecific visual contact, we investigated this effect by conducting a barrier experiment on a male-female pair of Sumatran tigers (Panthera tigris sumatrae) in Rotterdam Zoo, the Netherlands. The tigers were exposed to four consecutive housing treatments: (i) housed in the same enclosure (baseline), (ii) housed in separate enclosures with visual contact, (iii) housed in separate enclosures without visual contact, and (iv) housed in the same enclosure after the separation. We used focal and scan sampling to measure pacing and recorded the number of visitors. Moreover, we applied scan sampling to measure activity. Overall, our results indicate that the tigers paced significantly more when housed in separate enclosures with conspecific visual contact. Moreover, our results suggest that limiting visual contact between neighboring tigers can mitigate pacing. Implementing these findings in tiger husbandry and enclosure design has the potential to improve animal welfare zoo populations of large felines.
摘要：
圈养的大型猫科动物容易出现不正常的重复行为，如起搏，这与福利问题有关。已知没有机会参与适当行为的视觉接触会增加起搏。为了更好地理解起搏与特定视觉接触之间的关系，我们通过对鹿特丹动物园的一对苏门答腊虎（Pantheratigrissumatrae）进行屏障实验来研究这种影响，荷兰。老虎被暴露在四个连续的住房处理：（i）住在相同的外壳（基线），(ii)安置在单独的外壳中，并具有视觉接触，(iii)安置在没有视觉接触的单独外壳中，和(iv)在分离后容纳在相同的外壳中。我们使用局灶性和扫描采样来测量起搏并记录访客人数。此外，我们应用扫描采样来测量活动。总的来说,我们的结果表明，当老虎被安置在具有特定视觉接触的单独围栏中时，它们的步调明显更高。此外，我们的结果表明,限制相邻老虎之间的视觉接触可以减轻起搏.在老虎饲养和围栏设计中实施这些发现有可能改善大型猫科动物的动物福利动物园种群。
